The Life We Live
by SisterCat144
Summary: Stacy Richards is 16 and has no other family left except for her 2yr. old daughter. Like her brother once did, she runs off to Tulsa where she meets the gang. What's gonna happen when one of them falls for her and Tess's dadddy who's been in jail shows up
1. Suppermarket incident

AN: I'M JUST TRYING THIS OUT. I MIGHT CONTINUE IT I MIGHT NOT. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE REVIEWS.

_STACY'S POV_

_'That's the last of it!' _I thought happily as I finished putting the last box of my belongings up. I had just moved here to Tulsa, Oklahoma from Panama City, Florida last night and after a rough three hours of sleep, I had successfully finished unpacking.

"Mommy!" Tess, my two year old daughter came running in the room. She ran over to me and started jumping up and down, all the while pulling on my fading jeans.

I sighed tiredly and picked her up. "What babyboo?"

She grinned at me as laughter showed through her pretty blue eyes. "Me hungry Mommy!"

I smiled at her. "You're hungry? Well, we better fix that problem." I carried her over to the fridge and opened it, sighing irritatedly when I remembered I forgot to go shopping. "Well I guess we're going to have to take a quick trip to the store."

Tess clapped her hands with joy. "Yay car ride!"

I laughed and grabbed the keys off the counter and headed for the door. Placing Tess in her carseat in the back, I got in the driver side and backed out of our new driveway. Oklahoma sure is different then Florida. It was always so hot there, especially when you live five minutes away from the beach like we did. Here it felt a little chilly but wasn't too cold. Of course, it was fall so it probably got really cold over here unlike Florida.

I grew up in a old house and I hated to leave it but there was just too many painful memories in that place. After my mom died, I took the money she left us and drove till I saw the Oklahoma sign. My brother said that Oklahoma was a pretty tuff place so I thought I'd see for myself. Donny, my brother, had ran away there when he was fifthteen but called and wrote to me all the time until the day he died in a gang fight.

"We're here." I say as I pulled up to the small stopping center. Going around the car, I picked Tess back up and headed inside the building.

"Buggy!" Tess pointed to a green shopping cart.

I placed her into the small compartment of it and decided not the buckle her up. "OK what do you want for supper?"

Tess looked like she was thinking very hard before answering, "Burger!"

I sighed. "We have hamburgers almost _every _night. Don't ya want somethin' else?"

"Burger! Burger! Burger!" She chanted causing people to look our way.

"OK, OK you win. We'll have burgers." I say as we headed towards the groundmeat isle. "What do you want to go with it?"

"French fries!" She squealed.

"How about some macaroni and cheese?" I asked her. All we've been having lately was fastfood and I knew it wasn't really the best for her so I was trying to cut down her amount of greasey food; easier said then done.

"OK Mommy." She said as I picked out things to get us through the week. Mom didn't have a whole lot of money to leave us but I was able to get a good bit for that old house.

"Yuck!" Tess yelled as she threw the pack of lettuce out of the buggy.

I popped her hand three times before going to pick it back up. "You don't do that little lady."

Tess looked up at as tears flowed down her cheeks, acting like I really did hit her hard. "I sorry Mommy."

I ruffled her curly, blonde hair. "Don't you do that again, alright?"

She nodded her head as she sniffled. I hated having to discipline her but I knew if I wanted her to listen and be good that hitting her was the only way. Of course I never hit her hard but not all that soft either. One thing's for sure, I won't ever hit her like my old man used to hit me.

I walked over to the sauses and looked through them while I had the buggy not too far away. While living in Florida, someone once tried to kidnap Tess but luckly I wasn't too far. Ever since then she's never too far from my side.

"Hey baby." I looked over to see a white/blonde haired guy leaning close to me. "What's your name?"

I raised a brow at him, something my brother taught me how to do when we were kids. "Nonya."

I tried to walk away after that but he put his arm down so I was pressed against the shelf. "That's a pretty name."

I rolled my eyes and looked at him angerly. "Get out of my face."

His cold eyes looked me over and his smirk seemed to grow when he saw my chest. "What if I don't."

I smirked coldly at him. I've had to deal with his kind before, hell Tess's father was a regular hood too. "I guess you don't fancy life then."

He didn't seem fazed by that. "You must be new around here because surely you wouldn't be talkin' to the Dallas Winston like this."

I just raised a brow at him. "Look, I don't care who you are. Nobody is gonna come walk up to me and act like he's the Lord himself and tell me how to talk to them."

I tried to get away again but he wouldn't move. "You sure are a stupid broad."

I gave him my most dangerous looks. "Now you listen up and you listen good boy. One, I ain't no stupid broad so you can get that out of your head right now! Now you let me go or so help me you will regret it."

The guy just smirked and shook his head. "I like them feisty." He then tried to kiss me but I brung my hand up and slapped him across the face as hard as I could, knocking him back.

"Don't you ever touch me again you stupid hood!" I told him as I grabbed my buggy and started to head towards the checkout line.

"Mommy OK?" Tess asked me and I could clearly see worry in her eyes.

I gave her a reasuring smile. "Mommy's fine."

I put the groceries in the back and placed Tess in her carseat before driving off.

* * *

It was later that night around six and I had just fed Tess and was about to give her a bath when there was a knock at the door. '_Wonder who that could be?' _I thought as I went to open it. There stood seven guys that were lookin' pretty tough.

The really muscular one with the short hair spoke. "Hi, I'm Darry Curtis and we live across the street."

The movie star looking one smiled at me. "Yeah, we just came by to say hi and welcome you to this wonderful nieghborhood." He said in a sarcastic yet friendly voice.

I had to grin at him. I could already tell he was a happy-go-lucky kind of person. "Well hi, I'm Stacy Richards."

Darry pointed to everyone. "These are my brothers Sodapop and Ponyboy and our friends Steve, Two-bit, Johnny, and Dally."

I smiled at them all until I got to the snow blonde haired guy. "You!" We both said at the same time.

"I take it you've two met?" Two-bit asked with a brow raised.

"Yeah she's the stupid broad I tried to pick up at the store today." Dally glared angerly at me.

I gave him a cold look. "And you're the arrogant bastard who can't take a hint. By the way, didn't I tell you not to call me that? You need another handprint on the other side of your face?"

He looked like he was ready to hit me one but Darry and Two-bit pushed him back. Just then I herd a loud crashing sound from inside and Tess crying. I ran inside and picked up my little girl who was on the floor with one of the lamps shattered on the floor next to her.

"Mommy!" She sobbed and I held her tightly, placing her head on my shoulder as she wrapped her tiny arms around my neck.

"Shush, shush, shush. Mommy's here. Mommy's gonna make it all better." I say as I swayed back and forth. I looked up to see that the guys had followed me in and were looking at me kind of shocked. I rolled my eyes. I was use to that look. Back in Panama City, people use to give me those looks along with shameful glances. I guess it wasn't the best thing to be a mother at the age of sixteen.

Tess calmed down and pretty soon she was fast asleep on my shoulder. I sighed and glanced back over at the guys. "Well I guess you've met my daughter now."

"How old is she?" Two-bit asked as he gave us a small smile. The way he looked at us told me that he was pretty fond of kids.

"Two." I answer as I brought her down the hall and into our room. This was the cheapest house I could afford to keep and be able to still have money to live off of for awhile and it only had one bedroom. After placing her in the middle, I placed two pillows by her so she wouldn't roll off the bed even though it was a queen sized bed and it wasn't very likey for her to roll off of it.

I came back into the room and gave them a small smile. "Y'all want something to eat or drink?"

They all shook their heads. "We're good."

"Do you mind if I ask a question?" Steve asked me and I nodded, having a pretty good clue on what he was going to say. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen." I answered as I picked up the glass off the floor while they sat on the couch. "I had Tess when I was fourteen."

The guys just nodded their heads and I could tell they were still a little shocked. Hell, I guess I would be too.

Dally looked up at me with no pitty what so ever and for that I liked him. I hated when people pitty me a whole lot more than I hate those shameful glares. "Where's the father at?"

I sighed. "Probably in jail."

"It's just you who lives here?" A shy voice asked and I looked over to see Ponyboy.

I gave him a small smile. Somethin' told me him and that Johnny kid didn't talk much. "Just me and my babygirl. Both my parents are dead and so is my brother."

They gave me that sad look and I rolled my eyes. "Don't y'all dare give me those pitty eyes. I hate that look more than those stupid glares that most people throw my way when they see Tess. My old man's been dead for a good five years, my brother died three years ago, and my mom just recently died. The only one of them that I actually gave a damn about was my brother."

"Where are you from?" Soda asked me with a curious look in his eyes. I could clearly see why any girl would fall for him I mean, he's totally hot.

"Panama City, Florida." I answer.

"Well we better get going." Darry said as he stood up and smiled at me. "We just live across the street with the old gate. If you need anything at all or just have nothin' better to do, just come by and hang out with us."

I smiled at him and nodded. "Sure and the same goes for y'all."

I watched them leave before cleaning up the kitchen and calling it a night, knowing that I'll be up bright and early in the morning.

* * *

_TWO-BIT'S POV_

We were now back home and were eatting dinner while listening to the news. OK, scratch that thought. We were eatting dinner, goofing around while Darry tried to watch the news but with all the noise we were causing was making it quite difficult to eat, let alone watch TV.

"So what do you think about that Stacy broad?" Steve asked as he arm wrestled with Sodapop.

"She's pretty hot." I say as I thought about her pretty blonde hair that went just passed her shoulders.

"Well we knew you thought so." Soda rolled his eyes. "She's blonde after all."

I grinned at him. "Hey, not every blonde is hot."

"She seemed nice." Pony said as he looked up from his book. That kid read to damn much. It was very rare to see him without a book or not at the movies. I may not have any proof to back me up right now, but I'm 98 sure that this is somehow Darry's fault.

"So you are alive behind that book." I say with a grin on my face, making him roll his eyes.

"I agree. She's hot and she did seem nice." Sodapop said as Steve won the match.

"She may be hot but that chick don't let anyone get away with shit." Dally said as he took a swing of beer.

"I can't believe she actually said something to you. That takes guts man." Steve said as he grabbed a deck of cards. "Who's up for poker?"

"Count me in!" Soda said cheerfully.

"Me too." I say as I sat by the coffee table where we always play.

"I guess I'll play too." Dal said as he got up. "What about you Johnnycakes?"

He just nodded. Ever since those dumbass socs jumped him, he hasn't said hardly anything to anyone except maybe Dal and Pony. He worships the ground Dallas walks on and Ponyboy was his bestfriend.

"I can't believe a girl like that has a kid. Lookin' at her, you'd never be able to tell 'cause she's not big at all." Steve said as he pulled out some quarters.

"Ain't that the truth." I say as I do the same. That little Stacy broad sure was somethin' else though.

"I would hate to have a kid, especially at my age." Steve said and Soda nodded his head in agreement.

"I mean, just think. She had a new born baby at Pony's age." Soda said as he shook his head. "And what about the father? I know if I got some chick knocked up I surely would take responsability for it."

"Yeah well he was probably like Dally." I say as I grinned over at Dal. "Young, dangerous, and a down right hood who'll screw any chick in sight."

He had me down in a second. "What was that you little punk?" After a few jabs to the head, he let me go.

AN: I'M JUST TRYING THIS OUT. I MIGHT CONTINUE IT I MIGHT NOT. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE REVIEWS.


	2. Hangin' Out

AN: THANKS YOU TO THOSE WHO REVIEWED. I'M NOT SURE IF I SHOULD REALLY KEEP GOING OR NOT BUT I GUESS IT WOULDN'T HURT TO MAKE A SECOND CHAPTER.

_STACY'S POV_

"Mommy wake up!" Tess giggled as she jumped on the bed near my stomach. "Time to wakey up!"

I groaned and looked up at her. I had no clue where she got being a morning person from. Nobody and I mean nobody in my family ever liked getting up before twelve in the afternoon. Sighing, I grabbed her and sat her down on my stomach.

"Whatcha doin' up so early babygirl?" I asked her as I glanced at the clock that read 7:55.

She giggled and started bouncing on my belly. "Up, up, up Mommy! It's time to cook!"

I laughed. "Well I guess it is, huh?" I then get up and carried Tess into the livingroom. "You want to watch TV while Mommy makes you breakfist?"

She grinned. "Mickey!"

Placing her on the couch, I flipped the station to cartoons where they were showing a new Mickey Mouse episode. I then went into the kitchen which was basically in the same room just in the left corner. I was making us some eggs with toast since I've been craving that ever since we've been on the road. Tess only ate one with two pieces of toast while I ate two with one piece of toast.

"Come on Tess, it's time to eat!" I called and soon I herd light footprints running towards me.

She sat down in one of the two chairs I had at the table. "Food!"

I laughed. "Come on, we got to wash your hands first." I picked her up and put some of the dishwashing soap in her hands and let her rub them together before rinsing them in the water.

She climbed back into her chair and I placed her plate infront of her before fixing mine. Just then there was a knock at the door. Sighing, I started for the door hoping whoever it was wouldn't want to chat too much. That plate of food looked really good and I was dying to take a bite of it.

"Howdy nieghbor!" It was the guys from earlier...well at least four anyway. It was just Two-bit, Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dallas.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked them as I opened the door wider, allowing them to enter.

"Nothin' at all which is why we came to see you." Two-bit said and I laughed at his grin. Man, he reminds me of a giant big kid.

"Mommy, who was that?" Tess asked as she looked over at the guys curiously.

"Why I'm Two-bit, this is Pony, that's Johnny, and the scary lookin' one is Dally." Two-bit told her with a grin. "Whatcha eatin' there kiddo?"

"Eggs." Tess says as she smiles at him and then looks over at Dally. "He's not scary. He looks like my Daddy."

"Would y'all like something to eat?" I asked, maybe trying to change the subject. It was true. Dally did look a whole lot like Cody except Cody was taller and looked a bit meaner. They both had that snow blonde hair that they kept long and had that cold look in their eyes which never seemed to fade.

"Uh nahh we already ate." Pony answered.

I fixed my plate. "Well I haven't and I'm about to starve to death."

"You sure look like it." Dally told me and I rolled my eyes. I had lost all my weight from having a baby a while back except the fat that the doctor said I'll never lose. Everywhere I go, people always have to make dumb remarks about it.

"Mommy, I'm going to watch Mickey." Tess said as she got up and walked over to the TV.

"Mickey's on?" Two-bit asked excitedly and I couldn't help but laugh as everyone else rolled their eyes. "I'll be back." With that said he ran and sat on my couch with Tess, totally zoned in with the show.

"Is he always like this?" I couldn't help but ask. Two-bit seemed really nice and he wasn't bad lookin' either.

"Yep." That was the first thing I ever herd Johnny say.

I looked over at him and smiled. "Well at least Tess has a new friend to watch her favorite show with."

"So what are y'all doin' today?" Dally asked me as he leaned against the wall looking as tough as ever.

I just shrug my shoulders as I finished my breakfist and placed Tess's and my plates into the sink. "I'm not sure."

"Have you seen the town yet?" Pony asked me.

"Only the suppermarket." I say as I glanced at Dal who in returned smirked.

"Hey!" I herd Two-bit cry out and I turned to look at what was going on. "The TV just went out!"

"Mommy come fix it pu-lease!" Tess cried out as she looked at me with big blue eyes.

We've had this TV for so long and it did this quite a lot. Grabbing one of my high heals out of our room, I went up to the TV and hit it three times. Like it did all the other times, it came back on and I threw my shoe back in my room.

"Yay Mommy!" Tess says as she clapps her hands.

I grinned at her as I sit in the arm chair. The guys were looking at me like I was crazy. "What?"

"You just beat your TV with a shoe?" Two-bit asked me with a grin on his face.

"It came back on didn't it?" I asked him.

"Crazy chick." I herd Dal muttered and I gave him a look.

"What was that Dally?" I asked him with a brow raised.

"Nothin'." He told me as he sat on the arm of my chair.

I raised a brow at him. "You know there's a spot on the couch, right?"

He smirked down at me. "Yep."

I gave him a look. "So insted you choose to sit by me, oh how sweet!" I say sarcastically. I didn't mind Dally much but sometimes he reminded me too much of Cody.

He smirked at me and put his arm around my shoulders. "You should be honored babe."

I removed his arm from around me and gave him a look. "If you're going to sit here then keep your arms and feet to yourself."

"Aw man, Mickey's off!" Tess said as she glared at the TV. "Stupid TV!"

We all laughed. "Sweetie, it's not the TV's fault. It's the people who put the shows on the air."

She looked up at me. "Call and curse them out like you do when Daddy calls then."

I gave her a look. "If I did that then they might just cut out all the cable and then you would never be able to watch TV again."

"OK." She said as she got up off the couch and looked at Two-bit. "Want to play?"

Two-bit grinned at her. "Sure. What do you want to play?"

She grinned back at him and ran to our room, returning minutes later with a box. "Candy Land!"

Two-bit got on the floor with her. "Sure little missy, that sounds like fun. Who else wants to play?"

"I guess I will." Pony says as he sits down next to them.

"Yay!" Tess shouts with joy as she looks up at Pony. "Pick y'alls colors."

I smiled as I watched them play. Tess had a few friends where we used to live but they certainly wern't this old and I think that's what excites her the most is people her Daddy's age wanting to play games with her. Her dad sure didn't do that with her. Hell, he barely gave her a minute of his time.

"So why did y'all move here?" Dally asked me and I looked up at him since he was still sitting on the arm of my chair.

"My mom died and I really saw no other reason to stay around." I answered mostly truthful. I really wanted to get away from that city that had made my life hell from the start. Panama City is a great place to go on vacation but for me it was hell to live there, especially if you live in the downtown part.

Dal raised a brow. "What about her dad?"

I rolled my eyes. "What about him?"

"Are you trying to get away from him?" Dal asked with a brow raised.

"Cody's in jail and he's going to be there for awhile." I say, not really answering his question. Truth was, that was one of the big reasons I moved. Cody Hinderson was a dangerous guy and I was sure once he got out of jail he'd come looking for us. He was still mad about me leaving him and his type stops at nothing till they get what they want and what Cody wants is me to be his little bitch who does everything he wants. I'll kill myself before I do that.

_DALLY'S POV_

"Why Oklahoma? I mean, why Tulsa?" I asked Stacy. I had nothing better to do so I figured why not question her.

"My brother ran off here and told me it was pretty tuff and pretty hard to locate people if you really want to hide." She answerwed as she watch Two-bit, Pony, and her kid play.

"What was your brother's name?" I asked her. "So you are hiding from that guy."

She gave me a glare. "I'm not hiding from no one right now but I figured just in case I do have to hide I might as well move here. His name was Donny Richards."

I gave her a look. I knew Donny all right. He was second in command in the Shepards gang and had been stabbed during a rumble. He's was a pretty tuff guy to know, especially if you needed help in a fight. The guy was a little bigger than Darry and acted a lot like Sodapop at times. He was only seventeen when he died and that had to be what, three years ago?

"I knew him." I told her. "Pretty tough guy." Stacy and Donny had the same grey eyes except her's showed tiredness and the over worked look as Donny's were either dancing all the time with happiness or as cold as steel. That's all I could tell so far they had in common.

She smiled softly. "Yeah, he was. He taught me all I know about fighting before he ran away."

"Why did he run away?" I asked out of curiousity. I usually didn't give a damn about anyone else's business but today I was getting pretty curious.

"It's a long story." She says as she sighs tiredly and grabs the handle on the side, making the chair pull out with a foot rest and lay back. I nearly fell off of the chair, making her laugh. "Sorry about that."

"Sure." I say as I tried to push her so she'd scoot over. "Scoot over."

She raised a brow. "What makes you think that I want your smelly self by me?"

I gave her a look. "First off I am not smelly and secondly the fact that you let me sit by you is proof enough. What's it going to hurt if I lay next to you?"

She sighed tiredly. "Fine but if you even think about trying something, so help me you won't be able to see straight for a week."

I chuckled as I layed next to her once she moved over. I wrapped on arm around the back of her neck and the other around her stomach, pulling her close to me and smirked when she gave me a look. "What? I'm just getting comfortable."

"Don't get too comfy buddy." She told me as she closed her eyes and I knew she'd be asleep soon.

I looked over at Two-bit and them to see that Johnny had also joined the game. "Who's winning?"

Tess looked up at me and smiled. "I am!"

I smirked. "That's pretty funny there guys since you can't let anyone win in Candy Land."

Two-bit gave me a playful glare. "Shut it. Is Stacy asleep?"

I looked down at her. She didn't even stur at the question and I could hear very silent snores that came from her. I smirked. "Yep."

Tess looked up and was about to get up. "Let her sleep Tess. She'll be up soon but lets play while Mommy takes a nap, OK?" Two-bit asked her, clearly knowing what the toddler was up to.

Tess smiled at him. "OK. Y'all really like playing with me?"

Two-bit grinned at her. "You know it missy."

She smiled. "My Daddy doesn't, even when he's not in jail."

Two-bit frowned. "Dally doesn't play with me when he's not in jail either."

I glared at him. "No but I can beat the shit out of you."

Tess smiled at me. "You're funny."

I gave her a look. "Man, she sounds like her mom when she's talkin' back to me."

Two-bit grinned at me. "I think she's a cutie."

I raised a brow. "Which one, Stacy or the kid?"

Two-bit laughed. "Well both."

"Let's play again." Tess said and on went the day.

* * *

It was around one o'clock when we decided to make something to eat. Pony got some ham and cheese out and made us sandwichs after Two-bit gave him two dollars to and we were now eatting lunch. I herd a soft yawn and I looked down to see that the girl who was snuggled up to me was now awake. She blinked a few times and looked around.

"What time is it?" She asked as she tried to sit up but I still had a tight hold on her.

"One." I say as I take another bite of my sandwich.

Her eyes got big. "One o'clock! Why didn't you wake me up?! Where's Tess?"

"I'm right here Mommy!" Tess smiled at her as she ate her sandwich on the couch.

Stacy sighed in relief before turning to look at me angerly. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

I rolled my eyes. "You looked tired so we figured we'd let you sleep awhile."

She looked at all of us kind of mad before sighing. "It was nice of you guys to do that but next time just wake me up."

She tried to get up but I still wouldn't let her. She glared at me but I just grinned back. "Let me up Dallas."

"Say please." I tell her and she growls irritatedly.

"Dallas Winston, let me go now!" She yells at me and I simply chuckle.

"You hurt my feelings." I tell her with a wide smirk on my face.

"You don't _have _feelings." She told me as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Two-bit laughed. "Man Dal, she barely knows you for two days and she already basically knows ya."

I looked down at her as she continued to try and get up. Finally she sighed and looked up at me. "Dally would you _please_ let me go?"

I smirked. "Hummm I don't know."

She glares at me. "Let me go or else I'll make sure you won't ever be able to have kids."

I looked how close her knee was to my groan and decided to let her go. "Your welcome."

"I know." She says as she gets up and walks into the kitchen to make her something to eat.

"I left you a sandwich on that plate." Pony told her and she smiles at him.

"Thanks Pony." She then comes back over to me and sits down.

"Um hello?" I say as I tried to push her off. I had just got comfortable in her spot and now she's gonna come and sit on me. What's up with this picture?

She smiles. "Hey."

I sigh irritatedly at her as I look her over. "You know no girl has bugged me as much as you have been except maybe my ex Sylvia."

She laughed. "I guess I'm pretty talented." She then looks down at herself and her daughter. "You know what Tessy? Mommy and you didn't even change out of our pajamas today."

Tess laughed. "Yay!"

Stacy shook her head. "I think we should both go change."

Tess shook her head. "No way."

Stacy laughed. I hadn't really noticed much either. Stacy was wearing some plad pajama pants and a huge T-shirt that had an a/c company on it. Tess was wearing pink pajamas that said Minnie on them.

"What's the point in changing now?" Two-bit asked her. "I mean, half the days already gone."

Stacy rolled her eyes. "I'll probably end up going somewhere and I certainly am not going in this."

She got up and picked Tess up. "We're be right back."

_STACY'S POV_

After giving Tess a quick bath and changing her into a pair of jeans and a baby blue shirt that said 'cutie' on it, I brushed her hair while she brushed her teeth.

"You want your hair in pigtails?" I asked her as I finished getting all the tangles out as careful as possible so I didn't hurt her.

"Yay!" She said with her toothbrush still in her mouth.

I put her light blonde hair into two ponytails and sighed. I didn't know what to think about the guys. I mean, they're really nice and all but what about Dally? I knew I could never be with him no matter how much my stomach had turned when I was right next to him in his arms. I couldn't fall for another guy like him. It's already bad enough that he resembles Cody but he's a hood just like him and all that'll do is get me hurt again. A guy like him could never love me. Cody sure couldn't and I didn't need another lesson on that with Dallas.

"You like those boys?" I asked her with a smile.

Tess climbed on her stool once I was done with her hair and rinsed her mouth and cleaned her toothbrush. "They're tuff!"

I laughed. "Yeah, I think so too. Why don't you go play with them while Mommy gets dressed?"

She smiled at me and ran out the bathroom. I went into my room to grab me some clothes before I took a nice shower. Once I was finished, I put on a pair of jeans that were tight at the top but loose at the bottom and drug the ground. Not many girls worn jeans but it was chilly outside and I wasn't iching on freezing. I pulled on my yellow shirt that said 'babygirl' on it and had a hood in the back. After brushing my teeth, I applied my make up which wasn't too much. I used to wear a whole lot but after I had Tess, I stopped. I sighed as I brushed my thin blonde hair. I couldn't really do anything with it so I decided to just leave it down.

I walked out of the bathroom and into the livingroom. Tess, Pony, Two-bit, and Johnny were playing a new game now while Dally watched them with an amused look. When Tess saw me enter she smiled up at me.

"I put the other game up!" She told me proudly.

I smiled and gave her a highfive. "Good girl!"

"Do y'all want to go anywhere now?" Pony asked us.

"Where is there to go?" I asked as I put my sandals on. I only had one pair of tenni shoes since I was mainly on the beach most of the day and hated wearing shoes.

"We can go to the DX, that's where Sodapop and Steve work." Pony suggested.

"Or the park, The Dingo, Tastee Freeze, the bowling ally, the back ally, the Nightly Double, or the -" I cut Two-bit off.

"OK, OK slow down." I told him with a laugh. "We can go wherever, it's up to y'all really."

"Well lets go." Dally said as everyone got up.

"Go get your shoes Tess." I told her and she ran down the hall and back with her pink sandals.

"Is all y'all have is sandals?" Dal asked as he raised a brow.

"No I have heals but I really don't want to wear them or that dumb pair of converses. Shoes are dumb." I told them as I picked Tess up and carried her since we were going to walk wherever and I knew she'd try to run off.

Two-bit laughed. "Man you sound like Sodapop."

After a five minute walk, we made it to a small gas station called the DX. We walked on in and saw a ton of girls over talkin' to Sodapop while Steve was helping a costumor.

"Hey fellas!" Two-bit called as we walked over to them.

"Hey guys!" Soda called through the mob of girls. "Come on over."

Much to the girls dislikes, we walked on over to him, pushing a few out of the way. "Hey Soda." Pony said to his brother.

"Hey kiddo." He smiles at him and then sees me and Tess. "Well hey Stacy, right?"

I smiled. "Yeah, Stacy and this is Tess."

Soda smiled brightly at Tess and Tess giggled. "Well hey little cutie it's a pleasure to meet ya."

Tess smiled. "Hiya. Who are you?"

"Why I'm Soda and this here is Steve." He said as Steve came over to us.

"You are dealing with the next costumor." Steve told Soda irritated. "That old bat just about drove me fuckin' crazy!"

Soda hit Steve on the shoulder. "Don't swear around the kid."

Steve looked at Pony and he pointed up at Tess. "Oh hey, sorry I didn't see ya there."

"It's OK." I tell them. "It ain't nothin' she ain't herd before."

"Hey guys, y'all want to go to the park?" Two-bit asked after we got bored with Steve and Soda.

"Yay the park!" Tess squeals as she claps her hands together and grins.

"I guess that answers your question." Pony says and with that said we head to the park.

AN: PLZ REVIEW! BTW: I'LL BE UPSDATING LIVING THROUGH A NIGHTMARE AND FREE AND EASY DOWN THE ROAD I GO SOON!!


	3. Fears and Doubts

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! I THINK I'M GOING TO COUTINUE THIS. OH YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION, JOHNNY AND DALLY SURVIVED SO THIS TAKE PLACE A YEAR OR SO AFTER EVERYTHING WITH THE CHURCH HAPPENED.

_STACY'S POV_

"Be careful!" I called to Tess from my spot under a shady tree. Tess, Two-bit, and Pony were climbing the monkey bars at the park we were at while Dally, Johnny, and me were sitting under a tree not too far away.

"You worry too much." Dal told me as he smoked a cigarette.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm her mother, it's my job to worry about her. Besides, she's fell off those before and I'm not iching to run her to the hospital for another broken arm."

Dally smirked and shook his head slightly. "Not every mother worries twenty four seven about their kid. Hell, the Curtis' are the only ones who used to have parents that worried about everything they did. My parents sure don't give a fuck."

I looked at him carefully. "Are their parents dead? You said used to."

Dal's eyes seemed to harden. "Yeah, been dead for a year now and don't you go botherin' them about it. It's still a touchy subject."

"I wouldn't. It's none of my business anyway." I tell him as I watch Tess swing wildly from the very top. "Be careful!"

"She sure does look a lot like you." Johnny told me as he watched Tess.

I smiled at him. "People say that a lot but I don't really see it. All she got from me is her blonde hair but then again her dad was a blonde too."

"You can see it in her face." Johnny told me as he pulled out another cancer stick.

I smiled as I turned my attention back to Tess, who had just jumped off the monkey bars from the highest point. "Tess Elaine Richards! You are going to get hurt!"

She just laughed and followed Two-bit and Pony to the slide.

I sighed. "God, sometimes I feel like I'm talkin' to a brick wall."

I herd a deep chuckle and I looked up and glared at Dallas. "What?"

"Man you had to have worry worts for parents to turn out the way you are. Give the kid some freedom, she's fine. Those two idiots won't let her get hurt." Dal told me as he shook his head and sat down by Johnny and me.

I laughed a little. "Trust me, my parents were anything but worry worts. They didn't give a damn about my brother or me."

Dal smirked. "Welcome to the club."

I laughed as Tess came running over to me. "Come slide with me Mommy!"

I sighed. "Why don't you slide with Two-bit and Pony?"

She pulled on my hand and tried to pull me up. "Pul-ease Mommy!"

Truth was, ever since I was little and fell off the very top of a almost seven feet high slide, I've been terrifide of them. Luckly my brother had been standing around watching me and had caught me before I hit the ground.

"Why don't we go swing?" I asked her but she only shook her head.

"No Mommy, I want to slide!" She coutinues to try and pull me up.

"I'll catch ya at the bottom." I try to reason with her but she shook her head.

"Come down it _with _me!" She told me as she gave me the ever so hated puppy dog face."Pul-ease Mommy!"

I sighed as Dal gives me a questioning look. "Why won't ya just slide with her?"

"Why don't you get Dally to slide?" I asked her with a grin.

"She appearently wants you too." Dal told me with a grin. "Don't even try getting me involved here."

"Pul-ease Mommy!" Tess whinned and I really wish it could be anything but that dumb old slide.

"Baby," I said as I looked her over. "Why can't you just go down it with Two-bit and Pony? I'll be watching."

"No Mommy! I want you to do it!" She told me as tears started to form in her eyes.

"Go with the kid, Stacy." Dally told me as he looked over at her.

"I can't." I told them, praying Tess wouldn't cry. I hated when she cried more than anything. It makes me feel like I'm not doing somethin' right.

"Why?" Tess and Dal asked me at the same time.

"Mommy's scared of heights." I told Tess, which was mostly the truth.

"It ain't that high Mommy!" Tess told me as she pointed up at the slide which looked to be the same height as the one I fell from.

Dally looked over at me and the look in his eyes told me he didn't buy it. Then he smirked liked the devil and I knew he knew. "You're scared of slides, huh?"

I glared at him as he threw his head back laughing. "Shut it. I am not I just don't like them."

Dally just coutinued to laugh and I looked over at Tess who was giggling. "Mommy's scared of something stupid."

"Tess!" I say to her as Dal laughs harder and I hear Johnny chuckling. "I am not scared you guys now shut it!"

"Man, I never laugh this much." Dal says once he finally stops and looks at me with that stupid grin of his. "Poor little Stacy Richards is scared of a little ole slide that even her _two _year old daughter isn't afraid to go down."

I punched him in the shoulder as my face got red. "Shut up Dallas Winston!"

"Come on Mommy. I'll hold your hand, I promise." Tess told me, sending Dallas into another laughter fit.

"I don't know baby." I tell her trying to think of a way to get out of this.

"Aw come on Stacy." Dally told me with his devilish grin. "Go down it with your daughter."

An idea sparked. "OK y'all, I'll go down it but Dally has to go too."

Dally raised a brow at me. "I ain't going down no kiddy slide."

I smiled. "Then I can't either."

Tess looked over at Dal. "Pul-ease Dally!"

Dal looked at her not even fazed. "Nope."

"Are you afraid of it?" I asked him with a grin on my face.

He gave a short laugh. "Nahh baby I ain't the one afraid here so don't try to point that on me. I just don't like wimpy stuff and that includes an itty bitty slide."

I gave him a look. "That's not tiny, that's huge!"

Dal chuckled. "So you are afraid."

I growled and tried to hit him in the arm again but he saw it coming and grabbed my fist. "I don't think so babe."

"Come on you guys, pul-ease!" Tess begged.

"You have no idea how much I'm starting to hate you." I tell him with a glare.

Dal smirked. "You ain't the first to say that."

"I wonder why?" I asked sarcastically of course I was only playing around though. "Who wouldn't hate a rotton hood who sucks at pick up lines."

Dal pinned me to the ground and had a smirk on his face. "What was that Sunshine?"

I tried to get up but I could barely move from under him. I saw Tess looking alarmed by Dallas and was about to go up to him but Johnny grabbed her, telling her that Dal was just playing around with me. After I gave a slight nod, she stayed where she was in Johnny's lap.

"Let me go right now Dallas!" I yelled at him but he only chuckled.

"Why should I? After that little remark I think I should -" He started but then his smirk grew. "Hey Tess, I think I will go down the slide with ya."

My eyes darkened. "What? No!"

"Yay!" Tess cheered as she jumped up and down.

Dally smirked at me as he got up and pulled me up with one fiece jerk. "Come on Stacy."

I looked at him and shooked my head. "OK, OK I take back what I said!"

Dal just chuckled. "Too late kid."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me with him as he followed Tess to the slide. I tried to get free but found that he had a stoned grip on me. He had to drag me the whole way since I had the heals of my feet drug into the ground which hurt because I was wearing only flip flops. Tess climbed up first and I tried to stay behind Dal but he simply pushed me infront of him.

"You can go first." I tell him as I tried to get around him.

Dal just smirked. "Nahh baby, that's alright."

He tried to push me up the steps but I refused to move. I smirked, he couldn't make me go up the steps. Dal seemed to see what I was thinking because before I knew it, he had lifted me off the ground. I shrieked and tried to escape as he went up a few steps.

"Put me down, put me down!" I yelled as I tried to get free. The fear of falling again now fully intack as I start to tremble.

"Are you going to climb?" Dal asked me, his hot breath tickling me ear.

"Yeah." I say softly as I accidently looked up. Tess, who was waiting for us at the top, seemed so far away and so high up. True to his word, he let me go and I slowly climbed as I started getting dizzy. There had to be a way out of this. God, there had to be.

"Come on babe, we don't have all day." Dal told me as he tried to push me forward again.

"Stop Dally!" I yelled at him as I almost tripped. "Oh God."

He had a hand on my back. "You're fine now quit worrying."

I looked back at him and by mistaked looked down. It seemed like I was almost as high as the fuckin' clouds! I had to get out of this, I just had too!

"Don't look down stupid, go!" Dal told me but his eyes softened when they met mine. "Come on, what is so scary about this?"

"I fell off a slide like this when I was little and if my brother wouldn't have caught me, I could have been seriously hurt! I don't want to fall again." I tell him as I realize how close we were to the top. All we had was five steps left.

"I ain't gonna let you fall, don't worry." Dally told me.

"Too late." I told him as we neared the top. It was time for me to stand up at the very top and sit down. This was the part where I fell last time so I was definitly not happy about doing this. I looked back at Dally. "Come on, why don't we do something else?"

"Sure, after we slide." Dallas told me.

"Come on Mommy, it's not that bad I promise." Tess told me as she slid on the slide a little but grabbed on to the bars so she wouldn't completely fall, moving so I can stand on the last step.

"OK." I say as I slowly stood up on the last step with shakey legs. I felt Dally hands on my waist as I slowly sat down and once I was sitting, I grabbed Tess. I smiled nervously, at least the worse was done with. I was soon lifted up again and I gasped and held Tess more tightly. Dal was holding us as he slowly sat down on the step.

I was soon placed into his lap and he smirked at us. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" Tess squealed with delight.

"Just hurry and lets get off this thing!" I say as Dal pushed the railing so we went flying downward. Tess was laughing while I was screaming my head off as the wind pushed through my hair. After what seemed like five minutes, we were on the ground.

"That was fun!" Tess says as she jumped out of my arms as I stumbled out of Dal's lap and sat on the ground, out of breath.

"If that was fun then I think I'll just be bored my whole life." I told them.

Dal smirked at me. "Aw that wasn't so bad."

I gave him a look. "I think I'll keep my feet firmly to the ground like gravity wants it."

Dal pulled me up and we walked back over to where we were sitting. Two-bit and Pony were now over there and they were all grinning at us when we sat down.

"I hear you're scared of slides." Two-bit said as I layed down on the ground.

"Will y'all shut up about it already." I tell them as I closed my eyes. "I hate 'em, I was just forced to it, and now I feel sick. Thanks Dal."

Even though my eyes were closed, I knew the rotton eighteen year old was smirking. He seemed to do that a lot. "No problem baby."

"You havin' fun here Dal?" I herd a new voice and I opened my eyes to see a tall guy with curly black hair full of hair grease and he had a long scar on the side of his eyes that ran down his face. His eyes were cold like Dally's and were such a dark blue that they looked black. "Tryin' to relive some of your childhood?"

Dally's face was stone cold. "Just gettin' some revenge but what's your excuse for swinging the other day?"

The guy just smirked. "You must be getting me mixed up with Curly."

Dal smirked. "If that's the case then Curly's turning out to be the splitting image of you then."

Tim smirked. "Don't I know it." He then turned to look over at me. "Who's the broad?"

I slightly growled. What's with people calling me a broad here? "You mean who's the girl who's about to kick your ass if you refer to her as a broad again."

Tim raised a brow and gave a bitter chuckle. "I know you are not talkin' to _the_ Tim Shepard like that? You must be new around these parts."

I raised a brow. "What's with you people 'round here thinking that you deserve all this respect?"

Dal just shook his head at me before looking back at this Tim guy. "You remember ole Donny Richards?"

Tim's eyes seemed to get even colder at the mention of my brother's name. "What about him?"

"Meet his sister." I tell him as I rolled my eyes as he looked at me shocked for a second before covering it up. "I take it you knew my bro?"

"I was good friends with him. He was my second in command." Tim tells me as he looks me over, probably trying to find any resemblance between Don and I.

"So you're the cold ass bastard who wouldn't know what fun is if it bit you on the ass?" I asked him with a smirk. "Don told me a lot about you."

Tim glared at me. "I can see that."

"Mommy!" Tess came running to me from the sandbox where she was playing. "Mommy!"

I groaned as she landed on my belly. "What bad butt?"

She giggled. "Come play with me!"

I sighed. "Where ya want to play at?" I could feel that Shepard guy's eyes on me but I ignored it.

"Help me build a sand castle like we do on the beach!" She said as she tried to pull me up.

"OK babygirl." I say and I turned back to the guys. "We shall return."

_DALLY'S POV_

We watched them run off to the sandbox, laughing the whole way.

"I remember Donny telling me his sister was pregnant a few nights before the rumble." Tim told me. "Said that she was in a lot of trouble and that after the rumble he was going down there to help her out, maybe bring her here."

I nodded my head, acting like I didn't care. _What the fuck is wrong with me? I shouldn't have to act. The only person I care about is Johnnycakes and I'm going to leave it that way. Just 'cause some girl and her kid moves here doesn't mean I should give her a moment of my time. Hell, I hate kids so why should I even bother with her?_

"What kind of trouble was she in?" I hear myself ask.

Tim looks at me kind of oddly before answering. "All Donny told me was that the baby's father was after her and was trying to kill the baby and that he was gonna leave to go kick the guy's ass."

"Too bad he never got the chance." Two-bit said as he shook his head sadly.

"Hey guys!" Tess called from across the park. "Come look at our sand castle."

Two-bit sooned grinned. "We're coming!" Tim and I followed behind them as Two-bit ran forward like a little kid to see the kid's 'art' work. When we made it over there, I saw a mountain of sand with a small stick that had a piece of grass wrapped around it as a flag at the top of it.

"That's cool." Pony told her and she smiled.

"Yeah it looks awesome kid, highfive!" Two-bit said as he held up his hand and Tess slapped hers with his.

She looked up at her mom. "Mommy we don't have any seashells to make windows here."

Stacy frowned but soon smiled at her daughter. "We may not have seashells but there are some rocks over there we could use. How about that?"

Tess grinned brightened. "Great idea Mommy! I'll go get some!"

"I'll go with her." Two-bit said as they both ran over by the swings.

Stacy smiled after them and then looked down at her watch. "It's already five thirty? Man, where has the day gone?"

"Well you did sleep for a few hours earlier." Pony reminded her.

"I wouldn't have if someone hadn't let me fall asleep." She says as she looks in my direction.

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe you shouldn't have got too comfortable by me."

She glared at me. "Well maybe you shouldn't have layed by me."

I gave her a look. "Maybe you shouldn't have told me I could."

She glared harder but I could tell she was dying to smile. "Well maybe you shouldn't be so warm and comfy!"

Tim smirked. "Sounds like I missed out on something interesting."

"We got some!" Tess yells as she came back with Two-bit. After placing the rocks in certian places, the castle was finished.

"I think we should be getting home, it looks like it's going to rain." Stacy says as she looks up at the dark clouds.

"Aw man!" Tess says with a frown. "Can't we stay a little longer Mommy? Pul-ease!"

Stacy sighs. "Sorry babygirl but no. You still got to eat dinner and I know you're tired since you haven't had a nap today."

"I ain't sleepy!" Tess says as she tried to change Stacy's mind. "I'm wide awake!"

Stacy picked her up and laughed. "Well hopefully I can fix that soon."

"Pony, Johnny, and I are going to head to the DX and wait for Soda and Steve to get off. We'll see you later Stacy." Two-bit says as we all start walking to the gate.

"Bye Two-bit. Bye Pony. Bye Johnny." Tess says as she waves bye.

They grinned at her. "Bye Tess, we'll play tomorrow!"

Tess giggled and we turn directions and start heading towards Stacy's house.

"Y'all don't have to walk us home, really." Stacy says as she turns to me and Tim.

I shake my head. "Yeah and let some socs jump y'all?"

Stacy rolled her eyes at me. "I can take care of myself and my kid."

"Your brother would kill me if I let you walk home alone." Tim told her.

"Well Donny's dead and he can't do nothin' now." She said bitterly.

Tim gave her a look and she shut up. We walked for awhile in silence until we got half way there.

"Thank God." I herd Stacy mutter and both Tim and I turned to look at her.

"What?" I asked her.

"Tess is asleep." Stacy says as she looks down at the kid. "At least I can get some work around the house done now."

"What do you need to get done?" I asked her. "The place looked clean to me."

Stacy raised a brow at me and gave a short laugh. "If that was clean then I would hate to see your idea of dirty."

Then it starts to poor down raining. I cursed under my breath as the cold rain hits my face and starts to come down hard.

"Come on!" Tim yells as we follow him into his house which we were lucky enough to have been close to.

"Mommy!" Tess cried out as we opened the door. "I'm all wet."

"I know baby, Mommy is too." Stacy says and catches the towl Tim threw at her.

I dried off with mine as I watched Stacy dry both her and Tess off. "This your place?" She asked.

"Yep." Tim answered just as the door opened again and in came both Curly and Angela.

"Damn it's raining hard out there." Curly says as he grabs him a towl out the bathroom.

"Did you just now realize that?" Tim asked him as he threw his towl at Angela for her to use.

"No." He answered as he looked over at Stacy and Tess. "Who are you?"

"None of your concern." Tim told him before Stacy could answer. "Get whatever you're thinking out of your head right now kid."

Curly just sat on the couch but Angela looked at Tim with a brow raised. "Why are you fuckin' a girl who has a kid? Better yet, why bring her here to screw and bring her kid along?"

Stacy laughed. "Oh please, I wouldn't fuck him if he was the last guy on earth!"

Both Tim and Angela looked at her before turning their attention back on one another. "Then who is she?"

"And ya can't just ask me yourself?" Stacy asked her. "I was on my way home with him and Dally and it started to rain so we ran in here. Which, by the way, I need to get home."

"In this rain?" I asked her with a brow raised. "Good luck with that."

She glared at me. "It should lighten up soon."

Angela looked her and Tess over. "I don't think I've seen you around here before, are you new or somethin'?"

"Yeah, we got in late the other day." She says as she sways back and forth, rockin' Tess back to sleep.

"Well I'm Angela." She says as she smiles at them. "How old is she?"

Stacy smiles at her. "I'm Stacy and this is Tess. She's two."

"You two remember Donny?" Tim asked Curly and Angela. They both looked up at the mention of his name. Nobody really talks about Richard anymore, especially the Shepard's gang. I think it's better that way.

"Yeah, what about him?" Curly asked Tim.

"This is his sister and niece." They looked over at her shocked.

"You're Stacy Richards?" Curly asked her. "His sister from Panama?"

"I didn't know he was such a big deal around here." Stacy said as she sighed.

"He was like another big brother to me." Angela told her sadly. Donny Richards was like the long lost Shepard brother to them ever since he had first moved here when he was fifthteen.

Stacy smiled sadly at her. "He told me once about a girl named Angel. Said he couldn't understand why she would settle for such scum when she was a lot better than that. Is that your nickname?"

Angel looked at her, shocked once more. "Yeah. He talked about me?"

Stacy nodded. "He told me about a lot of people. He really wanted me to come live up here with him."

"Why didn't you?" Curly asked her, eyes as hard as steel.

She sighed. "I couldn't or I gladly would have. There was so much shit to deal with at home and then I had all these other people to deal with...I just couldn't no matter how much I wanted too."

"Looks like the rain's stopped." I say as I looked out the window. It was only sprinkling now.

"Well I got to get her home. It was nice meeting y'all." Stacy tells them as she follows me to the door.

"You too." They tell her.

"If you need anything just come by." Tim told her and she smiled and nodded.

"You too." She says and we make our way back on the streets in silence.

"I wish I could have seen him." Stacy says softly and I knew she was talkin' about Donny.

"Didn't you talk to him?" I asked her as I lit up a cigarette. This conversation was getting kind of uncomfortable and I hate when girls get all emotional.

She gave a bitter laugh. "Yeah, the last thing I told him was that I was pregnant and he nearly flipped. Swore up and down that he was coming to get me and that if I wanted to live, I wouldn't fight him. Two weeks went by and I could never get in touch with him after that. I read in the newspaper later that week about his death."

I sighed and put my arm around her as she started to cry. God, did I hate with chicks cry; it drove me plum nuts to hear them blubbering on. "Hey he was planning on coming after you after that rumble."

She shook her head as more tears fell. "Yeah but appearently God didn't want that for me because he took Donny away."

I sighed. "Kid, it's OK. He's been gone for a while now."

She whipped at her tears with her free hand. "I know it's just this town. Maybe I shouldn't have come here, I should have known that this place would be full of painful memories about him and pretty soon everyone will know I'm his sister and how will they feel? Me being here is just going to remind people of him and I doubt anyone wants or need that. Maybe I should just move somewhere else."

I turned her around to face me. "And go where, Stacy? You said it yourself, this is a pretty good place to be if you want to hide from someone and appearently you're trying to hide. Who cares what others think, they can't just run you out of the town 'cause you remind them of someone baried down the road!"

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. "Maybe you're right." She said softly.

I smirked at her. "You see how much easier life could be if you just kept that in mind."

She laughed lightly as we stood infront of her house. "Thank for walking me home Dally."

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered as I grounded my cigarette.

"Good night and I guess I'll see ya tomorrow." She says as she turns to go inside and I walk across the street and into the Curtis'. I don't know what it is about that little Stacy broad. Any other woman would have talked to me like the way she does or act remotely similar and I would have been through with them in a second. There's just something about this broad.

AN: PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!


	4. Painful Memories

AN: THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!

_STACY'S POV_

_"I still don't see why you gotta leave, Donny!" I cried as I held onto my fifthteen year old brother. _

_He looked down at me sadly. "You know why Stacy. If I stay here then Mom's going to kill me and leave off where Dad did!"_

_More tears started to poor down my cheeks at that. I loved my brother more than anything and I was sure I wouldn't be able to live without him. "Can't I come with you?"_

_Donny sighed as he held me, his twelve year old sister, close to his warm chest. "I promise StacyLue, as soon as I find a place to stay and get a job then I'll come back for you, I promise."_

_I coutinued to cry into his chest. "I wish you didn't have to leave."_

_"I wish I didn't have to either babygirl." He told me as he rocked me, making me fall fast asleep._

I jumped up in bed as I breathed heavily. Why do I always have to have these stupid dreams? Why can't the past stay in the past and stop haunting me night after night after night. Shit, I was lucky I didn't have one of these flashbacks earlier when I fell asleep in the chair by Dally. The guys probably would have flipped and there's no way I could tell them about these dumb memories.

I glanced over to my left to see Tess snuggled up to her pillow, fast asleep. _'If only I could sleep that well for once.'_ I thought as I turned to my alarm clock that read 3:31am. I sighed silently. I knew I wouldn't be able to get anymore sleep so I decided to just go ahead and get up and maybe find something to keep myself busy so I won't think about Donny or Dad or Mom or even Cody. I don't want to think about any of them.

I plopped down on the couch and turned the TV on, turning the sound almost all the way down so I wouldn't wake Tess up. Leave It To Beaver was the only thing on beside the news and I've never been one to care about what trouble is going on across the state so I settled for this.

_"Do you see how wrong it was for you to pull that prank on that poor boy, Beaver?" _The father asked as he scolded his youngest son.

"_I see your point Dad. I guess I should go tell him I'm sorry, huh?" _Beaver said as he sighed, looking down slightly at the floor.

"_Now that would be the right thing to do. Go on now." _The dad says and off went the kid.

I can't help but think about how dumb this show was. None of this really happens when kids make mistakes. The parents are not that understanding and let them get off easy with just a lecture. At least no one I've ever known has had parents like that. My dad would beat Donny and me senceless if we so much as looked at him wrong and our mom would starve us as punishment. I couldn't tell you what I hated worse because either way I suffered. I hate how TV only shows what people want people to think happens between parents and their kids. It's all some big lie millionare producers think up to try and earn some money.

'_What was that noise?!" Daddy yelled as I start to sweep up the glass from the broken plate._

_"I-I dropped a p-plate. It was an accident Daddy, I swear." I say as I closed my eyes, already knowing what was coming._

_"I'm sure it was you little shit! You were just trying to wake me up from this G'damn hangover! Don't you even dare lie to me little girl!" Daddy yelled as he shook my six year old body like a rag doll. I really didn't look much like a six year old at all. I was so small from not getting enough to eat that I could easily be mistakened as a four year old. _

_"I'm sorry." I sobbed out as Daddy threw me agaist the wall before punching me in the face. He kicked me in the stomach a few times before picking me up and pinning me against the wall, chocking me with one hand as he other slapped me in the face._

_"Don't you __ever__ do that again little girl or I swear I'll kill you!" Daddy yells before dropping me to the ground with a loud thud. "Now get out of my sight!"_

_I took off running into my room and placed a chair by the door so no one could get in. I rubbed my neck where there was a huge bruise from Daddy's hold and cried as quietly as I could on my bed, praying Daddy wouldn't come back for more._

'_Stop thinking about it!' _I yelled at myself inside my head. Why can't I ever do just that? Why can't the past just stay baried?

I flipped the station and decided to watch the news. At least maybe, just maybe this won't spark a memory. It seems like everything I watch ends up pulling me back into another flashback which is why I hate watching TV or movies. I hate having to remember this.

"_We don't know who the killer is or where he's located but we do know that it's a male around the age of thirty five and is to be armed and dangerous. Anyone with any leads or if you know anything about this man or the drive by shooting is to call Crime Stoppers." _The news man said as a picture of no doubt a regular hood was placed on the screen along with a number to call.

"_What did you just say?" Cody asked me as he shook me by the shoulders. _

_"I'm pregnant now let go of me!" I yelled at him as he pushed me down. _

_He paced back and forth in angry motions before glaring at me. "Get rid of it!"_

_I gave him a look. "Hell no! I can't just get rid of it, it's my own flesh and blood!" _

_He punched me in the face. "You will do what I tell you to or else you're going to regret it little girl!"_

_I had enough of this. I've been pushed around too much in my thirteen years of life. "I don't have to listen to a damn word you say." I then took off running down the hall with the sixteen year old close on my heals. As fast as I could, I ran out the door and into my house. I locked the door and ran to the phone, my heart beating faster with every bang Cody made on the door._

_"Hello?" Someone answered._

_"I need to talk to Donny, it's an emergency!" I say as I made sure the back door was locked and that no one was home. Mom must be out fuckin' her latest boy toy._

_"Hello, Stacy?" I herd Don's voice as I start to cry._

_"Donny please help, please!" I say as Cody's banging gets louder._

_"Stacy, what? What's going on kiddo? Calm down baby." Donny says but I can't even began to try. _

_"I-I'm pregnant Donny and the father is outside my door right now trying to kill both of us. Please Donny, you have to help!" I cry as the banging soon stopped and I didn't see Cody through the window anymore. "Oh God he's going to break a window! Help Donny, help!" I scream into the phone as more sobs come._

_"Stacy! Stacy! Come on baby stay with me," Donny told me after a series of curses. "In the third cabinet to the left is a special hole that I know your skinny ass can fit in. All the others are way too small so I'm sure he won't think to look for you there."_

_I do what he says but then something dawns on me. "What about the phone cord! He'll see it!"_

_"There's a phone I put in the cabinet when I had to call the police those times, call me back on it. Hurry Stacy." He tells me and I hurried and hung up and climbed back into the cabinet. Right when I was shutting the door I herd a window break and loud footsteps. _

_I picked up the phone and called Donny back as quietly as I could and forced myself to stop crying. He'd surely here me if I kept blubbering on like this._

_"Stacy?" He asked in a low voice._

_"Yeah." I whisper. "He's here."_

_"Just stay quiet babydoll." He tells me and I do just that. I can hear him throwing things around and looking all over for me. I herd a few cabinets opened and held my breath, praying that he couldn't hear the loud beating sounds of my heart that seemed to be ringing in my ears. _

_"He's gone." I say as I herd him angerly open the front door and slam it shut._

_"Don't get out yet." Donny tells me. "He could be trying to fool you so you'll come out of your hinding spot."_

_"OK." I whisper back. After half an hour of hearing nothing, I got out. Luck was on my side because Cody was gone but the house was a mess! "Oh God! Mom's going to kill me!"_

_"I'm coming to get you in about a week or so and you'll gonna come live here with me." Donny told me. "Don't you dare try to argue with me Stacy! It's appearently not safe for you there and the only way I'll know that you're protected is if you're by my side."_

_I sighed and gave in. "OK just hurry Donny."_

_"Alright Stacy, I love ya." Donny told me like every other time he called._

_"I love you too Donnyboy." I told him with a small smile. If Only I had known then that that would be the last time I ever would speak to him again. I wish I would have told him that I loved him so much and that I was thankful for everything he did for me. If only I would have gone up there to live with him sooner insted of getting into it with the wrong croud down here. Maybe, just maybe, Donny Skylier Richards might still be alive._

"Don't remember Stacy, don't remember!" I told myself as I turned the TV off and stepped out the front door. I grabbed my pack of cigarettes and pulled my lighter and one out. I can't take this! I can't take their memories!

"Why can't y'all leave me alone?" I asked outloud as I baried my head in one of my hands as the other held my cigarette. God, I feel like I'm going crazy! Maybe I should get me a drink. _'No! I can __not__ turn into my parents! Drinking is something they did and I am not going to be like them! I am not going to get drunk so I can forget who I am or what I'm doing and start knocking Tess around! I will not put her through what my parents put me through!' _

"Stacy?" I looked up to see who called my name. I saw Tim, Curly, and three other boys walking on the road by my house.

"Shepard?" I asked as I stood up, silently praying he didn't hear my little outburst. I didn't need other people spreading a rumor around that I'm a freak with a kid and talk to myself.

"What are you doing up at this hour?" He asked as him and the others came up my yard and leaned against the porch railing.

"I'm sixteen, I don't have a bedtime anymore." I tell him in my tough voice as I blew smoke out from my mouth. "What are you doing walking out here in the early hours of the morning?"

"Car broke down and ain't found another car tough enough to be seen in yet." He told me as he pulled out a cigarette.

"I'm surprised y'all ain't drunk." I told them. Most of the time guys are drinking when they are up at this hour.

Tim smirked at me. "What makes you think we'd be drinking?"

I raised a brow. "Tim, I know how my brother was and he told me stories about what y'all do at night. It was either partying, which consisted of alcohol, fighting, which y'all also drunk before a rumble, and getting laid which you needed the alcohol to get things heated up first. I ain't stupid, I know the score."

They gave me a look and I laughed. "You dig well girl." Tim told me.

"Don't I know it." I say with a smile. Part of the reason I love hanging out with people is that I can get my mind off of my memories. As surprising as it sounds, I can almost talk about Donny, Mom, Dad, and Cody like it wasn't killing me to just say their names or tell a story about them.

"Who is this chick, Shepard?" One of the guys asked. I could tell that he had dark hair and that he had light colored eyes because of the moonlight but any other feature were unseen because of the darkness.

Tim and Curly were silent but then Tim turned to him. "Richards's kid sister."

They looked back at me and didn't say a word and I rolled my eyes. "You know Donny or Richards's kid sister is not my name Shepard. It's Stacy and I would really appreciate it if you used it."

Tim smirked. "Guess you ain't going to appreciate me much."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh you're funny."

"Mommy?" I looked over as my front door opened and Tess came out with her Mickey Mouse blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

"What baby?" I asked her as she came forward and fell in my arms.

"Why are you out here?" She asked as I grounded my cigarette so I could wrap both my arms around her.

"I should be asking you that." I looked down at her. "It's _way_ to early for you to grace the world with your presents."

She giggled. "I had a bad, bad dream and then I went to wake you but you were gone and I couldn't find ya."

"I was just out here smokin' sweetie." I tell her and I look up to see everyone but Tim and his brother looking at me strangly.

"Oh." She says as I lightly rock her back and forth. "Who that?" She points to the guys.

"Tim is the one we met at the park and the others are his friends. They just happened to be walking by while I was out here and came up to talk to Mommy." I tell her.

Tess grinned up at me. "Mommy, you talk to _way _too many boys."

I laughed and I could hear the guys chuckling. "Oh you're funny." I then stood up with Tess in my arms. "I should get her to bed. I'll see y'all around I guess."

"See ya kid." Tim told me and with that said I headed inside and went into my room.

I laid Tess in the bed and covered her up, laying down right beside her. "Alright now, let's get some more sleep."

"OK Mommy, I love you." She told me as she yawned tiredly and closed her eyes.

I smiled and kissed her head. "I love you too baby with all my heart." I've never loved someone as much as I loved this kid. There's nothing I wouldn't do for her no matter what the price may be. I can't help but wonder though, was there something wrong with Donny and me? Were we just unloveable children? Why didn't Mom and Dad give a flip about us? Why did they hate us so much? Was I such a bad person that I was unworthy of their love or anyone's love for that matter. Donny was the only one that cared about me and when he died I swore up and down I wouldn't get close to nobody ever again. Then I had Tess and I couldn't help but love my beautiful daughter. I remember when she first told me I love you Mommy. She's the only one I'll ever love, I swear. I will never get close to another guy again because every man I've ever been with has hurt me. I just hope Tess doesn't have my bad luck with men.

AN: PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! MY OTHER STORIES WILL BE UPDATED SOON TOO, I PROMISE!


	5. Football and Socs

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!! THEY REALLY KEEP ME GOING!

_SODAPOP POV_

We were standing outside Stacy's door, waiting for her to open it. It was Saturday and everyone was off so we were going to play football in the lot and wanted to know if Stacy and Tess wanted to hangout with us.

The pretty little blonde opened the door fully dressed with Tess on her hip. "Hey guys."

"Hey!" Tess says as she waves to us with a smile on her face.

"Hey baby!" Two-bit says and Stacy hands Tess over to him.

"We're playing football in the lot and wanted to know if y'all wanted to play or come watch?" Steve asked her as Two-bit played with the kid.

Stacy thought for a moment but soon smiled. "I guess it wouldn't hurt any."

"Great!" Two-bit says as Stacy locks the door and walks with us down the road.

"Where's the others?" Stacy asked as she looked us over.

"Pony, Johnny, Dallas, and Darry are already at the lot." I told her with a grin, making her smile. We approached the empty lot soon enough and started getting into our teams while Stacy and Tess went to sit down on the old car seat. It was me, Steve, Two-bit against Dally, Darry, Pony, and Johnny. We always put Pony and Johnny together and with Darry since they're the smallest though I don't see why it's fair since Pony is so fast and Johnny's pretty sneaky. Dally says he can't stand to be on our team 'cause we just goof off and make him lose. Ha! I would do no such thing! Just because I get a little 'distracted' and Steve ends up tackling the wrong person and Two-bit can't stop laughing to catch the ball doesn't mean we are a disfunctional team like he says.

"Who gets the ball first?" Steve asks as we line up on different sides.

"Might as well give y'all the ball so you can at least say you had it once in the game." Pony told us and I gave him a playful glare.

"Laugh it up smarty 'cause once we win you are going to be the one being my slave for a week." I told him with a grin.

Pony looked at me confused. "What are you talking about Soda? We never placed a bet."

"Well lets place a bet now." I say. "Loser team has to be the winning team's slave for a whole week and can't complain once about what they are asked to do."

Darry raised a brow at me. "Settin' ya self up there little buddy?"

I glared at him. "We'll see who's setting themself up at the end of this."

"Enough talk, let's play." Dallas says and on went the game.

* * *

_DALLY'S POV_

It was almost half time and the score was 25 to 6. You can probably guess who's winning. Steve kept tackling Two-bit because he kept missing the ball and Soda kept laughing about something that happened yesterday. This is the exact reason I'm glad I'm not on their team.

"Run Pony, run!" Darry yelled at his youngest brother as he ran with the ball towards the goal line. Steve was hot on his heals and reached out and tackled him to the ground but not before he threw the ball to Johnny, who had been running not too far behind them, caught it and made the touch down.

Tess and Stacy cheered along with Darry and I. This was the third touch down those two made together and you'd think by now that Two-bit and Soda would learn to block the two of them.

"Yay Johnny!" Tess squealed as she jumped up and down.

"You guys need to do something besides stand around and acting stupid!" Steve yelled at Sodapop and Two-bit. "I might as well be playing by myself!"

"Aw come on Steve, we're not that bad." Soda said with a goofy grin.

Steve raised a brow. "Is that why we only have six points because Darry accidently tackled me into our goal line?!"

I grinned as I shook my head. I never laugh or smile much but when you're playing football with these guys, you just can't help it sometimes.

"If you want, I could help ya out Steve." Stacy offered.

"You know how to play?" Steve asked her with a brow raised.

She rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me? I'm a football junky! It's been a while since I last played but it'll be better than no help."

I smirked. "Oh I got to see Princess here play."

She glared at me. "What's so funny?"

I gave her a look. "I'd be surprised if you weighed a hundred pounds kid. Ain't no way you're going to be able to tackle even Johnny down!"

She glared at me. "Oh I guess we'll have to see about that. Am I in or not?"

"Sure babe." Steve told her and she got up and looked at Tess.

"You stay right here and watch Mommy show these stupid boys a lesson or two, OK baby?" She told Tess and the kid smiled up at her.

"Yay Mommy!" Tess cheered.

"Ready?" Darry asked as we lined up.

"You bet." Stacy says and then we start. Darry had the ball first but soon threw it to Pony once Soda and Two-bit came at him. I guess those two were actually going to try this round. Ha! We're still going to whip them. Pony was heading for the goal when Steve tackled him down but yet again, the young teen was able to throw it to Johnny. Johnny almost made another touch down but Two-bit tackled him down.

"Well I'll be, you can actually help out." Steve said as we lined back up.

"Of course I can Stevie-boy." Two-bit says with a grin.

"Yay Two-bit!" Tess cheered and Two-bit went over to her and gave her a highfive.

"Hut, hut!" Soda called as he threw the ball to Steve who took off to try and make a touch down. I tackled him down though but the little son of a bitch was able to pass it to Stacy, who coutinued Steve's mission. I was hot on her heals and she knew it too 'cause she started to speed up. I reached out and grabbed her waist, pulling her down on the ground 'causing the ball to fall out of her hands but Pony was near by and he caught it before it hit the ground and took off running as Steve and Soda came at him full speed.

I grinned down at Stacy before following Pony to the goal. Soda had tripped over his untied shoes and fell flat on his face, making everyone laugh. Steve was still on Pony's tail but soon stopped once Pony threw the ball at me. I ran like the devil was after me, almost making it to the goal but someone came flying at me and tackled me down, causing me to lose my breath for a moment. I pushed whoever off of me and sat up, exspecting to see Steve on the ground beside me but to my surprise it was Stacy who was grinning like a cat.

"Can't tackle anyone down, huh?" She says as we get up and head towards the guys who were laughing.

"Shut it up." I told them with a glare before turning my attention back to her. "So what, you can tackle but you still can't make a touch down."

She raised a brow. "We'll see about that."

We played for a few more hours without much happening really. Darry made two more touch downs for us while the others still barely had 6 points. It was the last round and we had already won but we went ahead and had a final play. To my surprise, Two-bit Matthews actually made it to the fieldgoal without falling down laughing once. So that ended it. We all headed home exhausted.

"Yay Pony's team!" Tess cheered as we walked down the street.

Stacy looked over at her. "Yep, that was a good game. I had a lot of fun and thanks for inviting us."

Darry smiled over at her. "No problem kid. You two want to stay for dinner?"

Stacy gave him a small smile. "No that's alright."

"Aw come on Stacy-Macy-Lacy-Kacie!" Two-bit begged her, making her laugh.

"I would but I need to go to the store and I want to do it before it gets too dark." Stacy tells him. "Maybe some other time."

"Didn't you go to the store the other day?" I asked her with a brow raised.

She gave me a look. "Yeah but I was in sort of a hurry to leave that I forgot a few things thanks to someone."

I smirked and put an arm around her. "I wonder who you are talking about."

"Me too." She says as she rolls her eyes, pulling away from me.

"What did he look like? I might know him." I asked her a I wrapped her back up against me.

She gave me an annoyed look but didn't move my arm this time. "Oh he was about yay tall and had this arrogant and conceded personality for someone who was just so ugly." This caused the guys to roar out with laughter.

I gave her a look before picking her up and turning her upside down, acting like I was about to drop her on her head. She shrieked as she tried to get away and held her shirt down so no one could see anything.

"Dallas put me down!" She yelled as she tried kicking me but all she kicked was the air. I made it so she slipped down farther, making her scream. "I take it back, I take it back! Now put me down!"

I just smirked. "I didn't quite hear that."

She glared at me but her frown looked like a smile from my view. "Dallas Winston, if you want to live to see another day you'll put me down right now."

I just smirked at her. "What was that? You want to go back to the park and slide?"

She shrieked again and I made her slip some more. "Dally!"

"Yes?" I asked calmly.

"Would you _please_ place me back on the ground!?" She says as we start to get close to the house.

I sighed. "Alright." I then acted as if I was about to let go and let her fall right on her head but she grabbed the bottom of my shirt, letting go of hers so I could see her stomach and some of her bra. I laughed before placing her upright on the ground.

She glared at me as she took Tess from Two-bit. "I hate you."

I just laughed. "I'm sure you do. I think I was right about what I said earlier though."

She raised a brow. "About what?"

"Ain't no way you weigh a hundred pounds." I told her making her roll her eyes.

"I've always been small for my age, it's no big deal." She says as we got to her and the Curtis' house. "I'll see y'all guys late, I had a lot of fun today."

"Me too!" Tess says. "Bye guys!"

"Bye Tess, bye Stacy." They all say but I just wave.

"She's a sweet girl." Darry says once we are inside and eating his home made pizza.

"Ain't she?" Soda says as he grabbed three slices.

"So is Tess." Two-bit says. "I love that kid."

I rolled my eyes. "They ain't even been here a week."

Two-bit looked over at me. "So? I can still care about her. I know you care about Stacy."

I raised a brow. "What the hell are you talkin' about?" How the hell can that idiot know about the way I feel about the girl? Hell, I'm not even sure how I feel about her.

"You never play around with any other girl like you were doing with Stacy today and yesterday." Two-bit says. "I can tell ya like her."

I gave him a look. "I don't know what the hell you're blabbering on about. I did that 'cause it annoys her and it annoys me when she talks back to me so I have to get even. I ain't about to hit the girl."

"You just keep feeding yourself lies Dal." Two-bit told me bravely. "Because I see the way you two act around each other and I know it's more than what you're saying."

I got up and stomped him. Ain't nobody about to talk to me like this, friend or not.

* * *

_STACY'S POV_

My stupid car wouldn't start so Tess and I had to walk to the store after we ate. It's not too far away but it is a pretty good walk from my house and not a very safe one either but I wasn't about to go bother the guys and ask them for a lift or to walk with us. I can take care of me and my kid by myself without any guys help. Hell, I had to live on the streets with Tess when she was a baby because my mom kicked me out and I got on just fine there...or as fine as it can go at least.

We got the items that I forgot, which were bread, a two leter pepsi, and a bottle of advil and then left. The sun was almost completely gone by that time and I knew I really needed to get home soon. I carried Tess and the two bags and was almost home when trouble came. I could feel a car trailing me but I only had to walk a little farther down the street and I'd be home so I started walking faster.

"Tess, I need you to listen to Mommy." I whispered in my daughter's ear. She also knew that we were being watched because she kept looking behind us scared. "If we don't make it home in time, I need you to run to the Curtis' and get help. You know where they live, right baby?"

She nodded as she shook a little in my arms. "Right across the street."

I nodded and gave her a small smile. "Good."

I herd a car door slam shut and drunk laughter. "Hey Greaserbaby."

One shot out laughing but I didn't dare turn around. "Ha she even has a baby Bret!"

I broke into a run but was soon knocked down. Tess was crying now but I let her go and watched her take off running, praying that they didn't go after her.

"Get the kid!" Someone yelled but I grabbed their foot.

"You want a fight then fight me!" I yelled at them. Sooner than the words left my mouth, the five guys were on top of me. Thanks to three of them, I was unable to move to hit back while they attacked me.

"You sure are a pretty little thing." One said as he sat on top of me, nearly killing me with his weight. Before I knew what was happening, he was kissing me roughly and ripping my shirt off. I bit him as hard as I could on the lips, smiling when I saw the blood.

"You little bitch!" He slapped me across the face before kissing my chest, making me whimper. "Don't worry baby, I won't make the mistake the last guy did. I use protection."

It was then I knew I was dead. He kissed all down my neck roughly and it was then an idea struck me. "Help! Help! Somebody! Help!"

"Shut her up!" The guy on top yelled and before I knew it someone was sticking something in my mouth, making me gag. The guy on top glared down at me. "You're going to pay for that, you little tramp!"

I screamed but it was muffled by the rag in my mouth. The guy had a knife and was making a huge cut on my stomach. Tears came to my eyes but I refused to cry. I will not let them see me cry, I told myself. Pretty soon though, the guys was pulled off me and my hands and legs were free. I tried to get up as I herd yelling as a fight started but soon passed out.

* * *

_DALLY'S POV_

We were playing poker at around seven thirty. It was a normal night at the Curtis' or so I thought. The door was soon opened and in came a crying two year old that resembled Tess.

"What's wrong?" Two-bit asked the sobbing child as he took her in his arms.

"M-Mommy, M-Mommy!" Was all we could get out of her.

"What about Mommy?" Sodapop asked her as he rubbed her back. "Where's Mommy?"

"M-Mommy!" She sobbed out as she tried to point somewhere.

"Out with it kid." I told her but that only made her cry harder.

The guys shot me a glare before turning back to the kid. "Baby, tell us what's wrong." Two-bit told her softly.

"We can't help if we don't know." Sodapop tried but she was crying too hard to say anything.

Darry handed her a glass of chocolate milk. "Drink this baby."

The kid took it and drank it gladly. Her face was red from crying and her hair was almost out of it's ponytail.

"OK, now what's wrong?" Two-bit asked her once her sobs subsided.

"B-Bad men hurt M-Mommy!" She started crying again. "M-Mommy told me to get h-help."

That was all she had to say before I was out the door followed by the others. Pony and Johny must have stayed with Tess because they were the only ones not running with us.

"Help! Help! Somebody! Help!" A female voice called and I knew it was Stacy.

I ran as fast as I could towards the voice to see five socs on her. The one on her moved back some and I couldn't quite tell what he was doing until I got closer. It was then I saw the knife in his hands and the blood coming from Stacy's stomach. I pulled the guy off of her and started beating the shit out of him. How dare that richass son of a bitch touch her! The G'damn little fucker! I threw him against his car and Darry had to pull me off the guy as I grabbed my blade out of my back pocket.

"Come on Dallas! You got him now stop before you kill him!" Darry told me as he dragged me away as the socs drove on.

"Damn bastards!" I cursed as I followed Darry over to where Stacy was. Soda and Steve were looking her over.

"Darry, her cut's pretty deep." Soda says as he saw us coming.

"Let's get her inside and I'll see if she needs to go to the hospital or not." Darry says as he looks over at me. "You carrying her?"

"Yeah." I say as I carefully lift her up into my arms. "Is her shirt any good?"

Steve picked up the filthy shreds. "It won't cover her up if that's what you mean."

"Oh well then." I say as I hurried and carried her to the house. It was getting colder out here and she's liable to get sicker like this. _Since when do I care if some chick gets sick? It doesn't concern me none. Maybe it's because I'll most likely be hanging around her and I don't want to get it. Yeah, that's it. _

Soda opens the door and I walk in and lay her down on the couch gentally.

"Get the firstaid kit, Pony." Darry says as he walks through the door.

"Mommy!" Tess sobs from Johnny's arms.

"Take her to a different room Johnnycakes." I told him and he walks into the kitchen, telling her that her mom was going to be OK.

"Can you fix her?" I asked Darry as I looked at the unconscious girl. Her hair was all in her face and she looked liked she had gone through hell and back.

"Yeah, I think so. If it was any deeper she'd probably have to go to the hospital though." Darry says as he gets his needle and thread ready. "Two of you are going to have to hold her down. I'm sure she'll wake up once I stick her a few times."

I grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head while Steve grabbed her feet. Sodapop was Darry's assistant and Two-bit had gone into the kitchen with Pony and Johnny to calm Tess down.

Darry cleaned her stomach off before placing the needle and thread through her skin. True to his word, Stacy awoke and tried to get away. She looked around with fearful eyes as Darry coutinued to sew her up.

"Hey it's OK kid, it's just us." I told her causing her to look up at me.

"Dally?" She asked, her voice was horse. She looked around and saw Steve and Darry and flinched once more as a pained expression showered her face. "Ah what are you doing Darry?" She gasped out.

Darry gave her a small smile. "I'm sewing you up kid. Socs pulled a blade."

She tried to get free but Steve and I held her down. "I'll be OK. I don't need any stitches."

I gave her a look. "Kid, do you have any idea how deep that cut is? You're lucky we don't take you to the hospital."

She gasped in pain once more before answering me. "I don't care. I hate needles!"

I smirked. "Oh well now."

"I'm half way done." Darry told her.

"Where's Tess?" Stacy asked as she squeezed my hands as a few tears ran down her face.

"In the kitchen." I tell her softly. "We would have came sooner but no one could make out what your daughter was bawlin' about."

"She was upset, is all." Stacy says as she whimpers in pain once more as Soda whiped away some of her tears. "Damnit Darry! Hurry the hell up!"

"I'm almost done baby." He told her softly and she seemed to relax a little. A few more minutes later, Darry was done and was cleaning over his work so it wouldn't get infected.

"I guess we could find her a shirt to put on." Steve says and we looked down at her. Stacy looked at us and blushed as she brought her arms around her chests.

"I would appreciate it if you all didn't stare here." She said clearly embarrassed.

I chuckled as I took off my shirt and gave it to her. "Put that on kid."

She sat up with Darry's help and hissed in pain as she slowly pulled it on. "Thanks Dal."

"Now get some sleep kid." Darry told her. "You ain't going home tonight."

"Send Tess to me." She said as Soda came over and handed her a pillow and layed a blanket on top of her.

"She can sleep with Pony and me if you want? She might kick you cut in the night." Soda offered.

"Thanks." Stacy says. "Let me see her real quick though.

Pretty soon Tess came running over to her mother. "Mommy!"

Stacy rubbed her finger lightly over her daughter's face. "Hey baby."

"Are you OK?" The kid asked worriedly.

Stacy smiled. "Thanks to you I am. I love you, my big girl."

Tess smiled. "I love you too Mommy."

"You're going to sleep with Soda and Pony tonight. Mommy'll be right out here if you need her." Stacy told her but Tess didn't appear to like that.

"Why Mommy? I want to stay with you!" Tess whinned and any moron could tell she was sleepy.

"I know sweetheart but you might hurt Mommy's bobo on accident." Stacy tells her. "You'll have fun with Soda and Pony."

"Really?" She asks and Sodapop grins at her.

"Oh course you will sweetie-pie!" Soda tells her. "Me and Pony here have a pillow fight _every_ night!"

"Don't we know it." Darry says as he looks at Soda sturnly. "Can y'all keep it down tonight please? Some people have work in the morning."

Soda laughs and waves him off. "Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Tess smiled. "Yeah."

Stacy smiled at her. "Now you go to bed now and behave. I'll be right here if you need anything."

"OK Mommy." Tess says as she takes Soda's hand and follows him and Pony into the bedroom.

"I'm going home." Two-bit says. "See y'all later."

"Me too." Steve says. "At least while I can before the old man decides I shouldn't come back again."

"See ya." We called and sighed.

"Well I'm going to bed. Wake me if you need anything Stacy." Darry says and then leaves once he see's Stacy nod.

"You can have the chair tonight Johnny." I told him as I got some more pillows and blankets out. I threw one set at Johnny before making my little pallet on the floor.

"I sure hope I don't move around like I usually do tonight." Stacy says as she yawns. "That's going to hurt like a bitch."

"You want me to sleep by ya so you won't?" I asked her with a smirk.

She gave me a look. "Now why would I want a guy like yourself to lay next to me?"

I grinned at her. "Because appearently I'm warm and comfy."

She glared at me. "Don't use my own words against me."

I smirked. "Too late babe. Tell me now if you want me to or not before I get comfortable here."

She was quiet for a moment before answering me. "If you so much as try anything, injured or not you're dead, got it?"

I just smirked and climbed in as she scooted over her. Once we were situated, I wrapped my arm around her and brought her close to me. "Whatever you say baby, whatever you say."

AN: TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!


	6. Dream and Job

AN: THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!! I WASN'T SURE HOW THIS STORY WAS GOING TO TURN OUT BUT APPEARENTLY IT'S PRETTY GOOD SO FAR.

_STACY'S POV_

"_I'm sorry Mommy! I'm so sorry!" I cried as I held onto my mother's legs. _

_She simply glared down at me and knocked me on my butt. "Don't think all that begging is going to get you anything to eat! I told you not to go back to that damn school and you did it anyway. Guess who has to go to down there now and explain why you haven't been coming? Even your dumbass brother has enough sence not to go to some damn school!" _

_I just stood there crying. I was ten years old and all I wanted to do was get away from home. I herd that if you did well in school that they would pay for your college and I knew that was a good way to get out of here. Luckly I was able to eat lunch even though I didn't have any money. I just told them I would bring it tomorrow and they let me have the hamburger free of charge. I knew it was the only thing I was going to have to eat for awhile once Momma found out and it seems like I was right, once again._

_After Daddy's beaten, I ran into my room to see Donny sitting on my bed. I didn't waste any time because as soon as I saw him, I ran into his waiting arms. He held me tight while I cry softly in his shirt._

_"I wish you wouldn't had gone kiddo." My thirteen year old brother told me._

_"I wish I hadn't too." I tell him as I finally stopped crying. I looked up into my brother's matching gray eyes. "Are we ever going to get out?"_

_He sighed and pushed my bangs out of my face. "I sure hope so Stacy-Lue, I sure hope so."_

_"I hope a miracle happens soon 'cause that's what it's going to take to get us out of here." I told him bitterly. "Sometimes I think God hates me."_

_Donny pulls my chin up so I have to look him in the eyes. "Don't be like that Stacy, you know God loves you. He's just got something big planned for us and he wants us to be strong so we can handle it. You know what Brother Jimmy says, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and I bet God and Jesus are just testing our strength and our faith."_

_I smiled. "I sure hope whatever we're waiting for is worth wild." _

_He grinned. "I'm sure it will be."_

_Even though we grew up in the bad parts, we still went to church unlike most of our neighbors and friends. Our parents sure don't know we go though. They probably think we're out playing in the middle of the highway. Donny was the one who got me going to church and I'm glad he did. It sure taught me a lot about life, love, and faith. I'm not sure if Jesus and God could ever forgive me for all the sins I've commited but I sure hope so. At least I know that Donny went to heaven and not hell and that's a pretty comforting thought. I wish I could ask him what it's like up there now._

_"What do you think it's going to be like in heaven, Don?" I asked my brother one day after church._

_Donny grinned. "I bet it's even nicer then the those houses and streets on the north side. I image it's as white as snow with streets of gold and everything's free, even the food."_

_I laughed. "Wow, I bet they have food better than the Dairy Queen."_

_Donny laughed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You bet sis. I can't wait to get up there."_

_"Me niether. I just hope that he likes me and doesn't think I'm really bad like Momma and Daddy." I told him as we walked along the beach._

_Don gave me a smile. "Shoot Stacy, he loves you just like he loves everyone who believes and follows him. Don't ever forget that. No matter what you do, Jesus will always forgive you for your sins, don't ever think it's too late. And Mom and Dad are wrong, you're an angel Stacy."_

_I smiled and hugged him. "Thanks Donny, I'll remember that."_

I woke up with a start as I tried to sit up but found that impossible because of a strong grip. I didn't know where I was, who was by me, or why the hell my stomach hurt but I knew that I needed a cigarette badly. I tried to wiggle out of the strong grip but it was useless. I felt the body next to me stur and then it came back to me. I was attacked by some rich kids and I stayed the night at the Curtis' in Dallas's arms.

"Stacy?" Dally asked tiredly. "What's up?"

"I just need a cigarette is all." I say as I turned to look at him. God, did he look like Cody from this view. The only thing that told me he wasn't was the fact that his voice wasn't angry when I woke him up and his grip wasn't violently tight.

"It's too early kid." He told me with a yawn. "Can't it wait till in the morning?"

I sighed. "Fine." I then just lay there, wishing I could sleep soundly for once in my life.

"Why are you awake anyway?" Dally asked me, his breath tickling me ear.

I melted farther in his arms as I turned around in his arms so I could bary my face in his chest, ignoring the pain that shot through me. He felt so warm and comfortable but the real reason that I liked being in his arms was that he made me feel safe, a feeling I've only felt once before and that was in Donny's arms.

"You OK baby?" I herd Dal's deep voice ask me as I snuggled farther in his chest.

"I'm fine." I mumbled as I closed my eyes. Part of me is wishing foolishly that Dallas was mine and all mine and the other part is yelling for me to come back to my sences. Dally is just like all the others I've dated. He'll try to warm up to me and make me believe he's a great guy and then he'll turn around and start knocking both Tess and me around.

'_Something is telling me he's different. That he wouldn't hurt me and wouldn't leave me. I wish I could believe this voice so much. I wish I could find it in me to trust a man again but I don't know. What the hell am I talkin' about? He probably doesn't even feel the same way about me. I'm probably just some annoying nieghbor to him that he can't help but hang around since he has nothing better to do.' _I start to get to thinking, ignoring the tiredness I was feeling. After my nightmare or flashback is when I get my thinking done since I surely don't have time to have my head in the clouds with a two year old on the lose.

"Stacy?" I herd Dally whisper in my ear.

"Yeah?" I say softly as I look up into his blue eyes. From a distance they looked like Cody's but up close I can totally see the difference. When Cody use to look at me, it was always a cold stare that always felt like he was looking at some piece of trash or blank paper that he couldn't put words on. Something useless. That's it. That's exactly how he always made me feel. Absolutely useless.

Looking in Dal's eyes, they wern't as cold or tough looking as they usually were. He looked tired still but his eyes were wide awake and I could see a little concern in them that I was sure he would deny if asked about it. Maybe he didn't look all the much like Cody.

"You never answered my question." He says as he rubs my back with one of his hands, running his fingers through my hair with the other.

"What was it again?" I asked him with a yawn.

"Why are you awake?" He asked in a soft whisper.

"I never sleep that well when I'm somewhere else other than home." I lied. Truth is, this was the first time in my life that I could really call a place home. Sure I lived in a small house when I was younger but I got just as much sleep as I did when my mom kicked me out and I had to live on the streets.

Dally gave me a look and I sighed. I must suck at lying or he's just really good at catching on because he gave me a look that clearly stated his disbelief. "You want to tell me the real reason now?"

I sighed and snuggled closer into his chest before answering. "Just didn't have that great of a dream is all."

He held me tighter against his bare chest and even though it was hard to breathe, I didn't say anything. It felt good to be pressed up against him. His warmth was willing me back to sleep so I kept my eyes opened, hoping that would keep me from falling asleep.

"And you couldn't just say that the first time?" He asked softly.

"Nope." I say as I smiled a litte.

"Was it scary?" He asked and I could tell he was smirking by the sound of his voice.

"No." I tell him and that was the truth. My flashbacks weren't really scary. Just aggrovating and sometimes creepy.

"Lier." He says and I punch him playfully in the chest.

"Am not." I say as I look up at him to see that he was looking more like the arrogant little jerk now.

"Then why did you want to smoke? Most people smoke to calm their nerves." Dally questioned.

I rolled my eyes. "Because I wanted a cigarette. It doesn't matter Dallas so stop trying to analyze everything I do!"

His smirked widened as he looked at me questioningly. "Analyze? Wow you _can _use big words can't ya?"

I glared up at him with a blank look. "You see this face, this is my angry face. Gurr."

We then both had to try to muffle our laughter. He looked down at me and shook his head. "Gee girl stop making me laugh so damn much."

I gave him a look. "I can't help it if I'm sometimes funny."

"What are you two doing awake?" We looked over to see Darry turning on the kitchen light.

"It's five already?" Dally asked him as he looked up at the now visible clock.

"Man." I say once I saw the time. "Might as well get up now."

"No, y'all two get back to sleep." Darry told us and we both rolled our eyes but didn't argue.

I knew if I didn't get out of Dally's arms now that I was going to fall back asleep so even though I didn't want to, I tried to wiggle free from his grasp. Of course though, that wasn't aloud. I was pushed up against him even more now and I silently sighed. Maybe I won't dream. I opened my eyes as I looked a little downward. I could see clearly Dal's abs now thanks to the kitchen light and I tried to hide my smile. God did he have a nice body. '_I wonder.'_ I thought as I looked a little farther down. '_Stacy! Bad girl, don't think like that! Gee, you must want another lesson from God about having sex before marrage! The one time I do and I get pregnant. Though there's always protection...oh who am I kidding, Dal would never be interested in me.'_

My eyes start to droop as Dal coutinued to draw circles in my back. "Why don't you want to go to sleep?" He asked but it seemed like he was slowly drifting away.

"Don't want to dream." I told him as I slowly started to give in to the darkness.

"It won't come back." Dally told me softly. "It was only a dream. Odds are it's long gone."

"I wish it was only a dream." I say as I gave into the comfortable darkness that slowly was easing my tiredness.

* * *

_DALLY'S POV_

It was eight o'clock when I woke up again. Stacy was still fast asleep snuggled up to me and everyone in the gang but Steve, who must have came back and crashed on the floor sometime during the night, was up. I slowly sat up, placing my pillow where I was laying so the teenage girl would just snuggle up against it and wouldn't wake up. I got up and went into the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Morning Dally." I was greeted by everyone.

"Mornin'." I muttered as I grabbed a piece of chocolate cake and some chocolate milk.

"I see you and Stacy slept together." Two-bit said with his eyebrow raised. "Anything interesting happen?"

I gave him a look. It was too early in the morning to put up with this idiot. "No, I just slept by her because she was worried she'd roll over and hurt her cut."

That dropped the conversation. They may get mouthy with me during the day if they're feeling brave but everyone knew not to bother me before I had breakfist. I was liable to snap someone's neck off in the early hours of the day.

"Is Mommy up?" Tess asked and I shook my head.

"Let's let her sleep awhile." Two-bit told the kid as she ate her breakfist.

"OK." She says with a grin. "Mommy never sleeps this late."

"That's probably 'cause you won't let her." Sodapop told her and she giggled.

"Mommy's always awake." Tess says. "Everytime I have a bad dream, she's already up. I only have to wake her up sometimes in the morning."

"Why is she always up at night?" Sodapop asked her.

She took another bite of ceiral. "I don't know."

"She woke up this morning too." I told them.

They all looked my way. "That's why y'all were up when I was awake?" Darry asked. "Did she say why she was up?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Just said she had a dream. She woke me up trying to get a cigarette."

We ate the rest of our breakfist in silence. Not too long after I was finished, Stacy stumbled into the kitchen tiredly. Her hair was a mess and against her face and her jeans were wrinkled from sleeping in them while my shirt on her was hanging low.

"Morning." She greeted and smiled. "Thanks for last night."

Darry smiled at her. "Anytime kiddo. How's your stomach?"

She pulled her shirt up, reveling her small stomach. Her cut went across her stomach and was making her belly look swollen lookin' and it was a little red but I guess that was to be exspected.

"It doesn't really hurt too bad." She tell Darry as he looked it over.

"That's good." He says as she pulls her shirt down.

"Mommy!" Tess came running at her and started pulling on her leg.

Stacy smiled at her and picked her up, placing her on her hip but soon placed her back down as she leaned over in pain.

"You OK?" Darry asks as he places a hand on her shoulder.

The pain finally dulled out and she looked back to meet everyones worried eyes. "I'm fine it's just I don't think I'll be able to carry Tess on my hip any time soon."

"Mommy OK?" Tess asked worried.

Stacy smiled down at her. "I'll be fine baby." She then turned to look at us. "We better get going."

"Y'all can't hangout with us today?" Two-bit asked her as he threw his beer can in the trash.

"Maybe later but right now I have to go look around for a job and daycare center." She says with a small smile. "Hopefully it won't take long."

"You want us to go with you?" Pony asked her.

She smiled at him before shaking her head. "That's OK."

"You really want to take a chance on getting jumped again?" I asked her as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall.

She glanced over at me. "I'll be fine."

"That's what you said last night when you left by yourself." I told her.

"Dally." She says with a stubborn look. "I'll be more alert today."

"I agree with Dal, Stacy." Two-bit says as he looks at the two of us. "You could be a target now."

She sighs. "What do I have to say to get y'all to drop it? I'll be OK, I promise. This isn't the first time I've been jumped in my life!"

"Yeah and it sure won't be the last if you keep walking alone." I told her earning a glare from her. "Besides, you lost the bet."

"What bet?" She asked with a brow raised.

"You were on the losing team with Two-bit, Soda, and Steve and the bet was the losers have to be the winners slaves. I'm telling you to let us come with you so that we can make sure you don't get jumped again." I told her with a smirk.

She glared at me for a few minutes before sighing irritatedly. "Well let's go then."

Two-bit and I followed her and Tess out the door. "We walking?" Two-bit asked.

"My car's broke so I got to work on it later." Stacy says as she grabs Tess's hand.

"You know how to fix a car?" I asked her with a brow raised.

She gave me a look. "No Dallas, I'm just going to take a few things out of it and screw it up even more. Duh."

I glared at her. "No need to get mouthy with me Princess."

She sighed as she coutinued to glare at me.

"Look!" Tess says as she lets go of Stacy's hand and runs across the street. Stacy ran after her and picked her up, carrying her back over here.

"No, no little lady!" Stacy tells her sternly as she pops her hands. "You don't do that!"

This of course sends Tess off into tears. Stacy grabs her hand tightly this time and we coutinue walking on.

"Do y'all know where some daycares or places that are hiring are?" Stacy asked us.

"Um I know The Dingo is hiring." I say as we came up to the rough diner.

"I'll go see." Stacy says. "Can y'all stay with her?"

"Yep!" Two-bit says as he threw Tess up in the air and caught her, sending the toddler into a fit of giggles.

We leaned against the wall of the building for a few minutes. I could clearly here a fight undergoing inside and I was silently cursing Stacy for being so slow. Pretty soon the fuzz would be here and the last thing I want right now is to be thrown in jail because I was near here.

"Winston." Tim says as him, Curly, and Angela walk up. "Matthews."

"Shepards'." I greeted back.

"Tim." Tess says as she points to him.

Tim smirks at the kid and ruffled her hair. "Hey kid." Tim hates kids about as much as I do but that is Donny's niece so I guess he'll probably like her.

"Can I hold her?" Angela asked Two-bit as she looked her over. I couldn't tell you who took it harder out of the Shepards' when Donny died but I do know it took Angel an entire two weeks before she came out of the house.

"Sure." Two-bit tells her and hands Tess over to her.

Angela smiled down at her as Tess plays with her long black hair. "Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Angel." She told her. "What's your name?"

"Tess, I's two!" She says as she held up two fingers.

Angela grinned at her. "I'm fifthteen."

"Mommy's sixteen." Tess told her.

Angela glanced over at Curly. "My brother here is sixteen."

Tess smiled at him while Curly stood over to the side, not really wanting to pay any attention to her.

"What's your mom doing?" Tim asked her.

Tess looked over at Tim and grinned. "Lookin' for job."

"What are y'all doing here?" Tim asked us.

"Standing here lookin' pretty." I say as I rolled my eyes. "Waitin for Stacy."

"Y'all seemed to takin' a pretty big interest in her." Tim said as he lit up a cigarette.

"We just came along with her 'cause there was nothing else to do. Besides, she got jumped last night." I told him as I lit one up myself.

Tim eyes hardened. "Where? By who?"

"At the end of her street by five socs." I say and Tim goes off with a ceries of curses.

"Tess here was with her and came running to us and told us Stacy was in trouble. When we got there they had cut her up and it looked like they were about to rape her." Two-bit said with an icy look in his eyes that was rarely ever there.

"Damnit that would have made the fifth raping in the last month by those bastards!" Curly cursed. "Why hasn't a rumble been called yet?"

Tim sighed and shook his head. "It will be soon. I don't know what's gotton into those rickass punks but I'm about to show them why they should stay on their side."

Just then Stacy came out with a smile on her face. "I got the job."

"Yay Mommy!" Tess says as she reached out for her mom and Stacy took her. Of course she didn't stay in her mom's arms for long 'cause Stacy soon hissed in pain and had to put her down.

"Ah, sorry baby but Mommy can't hold you unless she cradles you and I know you hate it when I do that." Stacy says as she gave her daughter a small smile.

"Can I see your cut?" Tim asked her.

She looked over at them for the first time. "Oh hey y'all. I guess so." She then slowly lifts up her shirt.

Tim looked it over. "Darrel's work?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"Looks like it was pretty deep." Tim says.

"We thought we'd have to take her to the hospital." I say as I leaned against the wall.

Tim sighs and shakes his head, muttering curses. She pulls her shirt down and he looks at it before glancing over at me. "Ain't that your shirt?"

"Yeah." I answered cooly.

Stacy looked down at it. "I was in such a hurry to leave that I forgot to run home and change."

"Why are you wearing Winston's shirt?" Curly asked her.

"The socs tore mine up so he gave it to me to wear last night." Stacy says. "Do y'all know where a daycare close by is?"

"There's one not too far from here." Angela says. "Just two blocks."

"Thanks." She smiles and we say our goodbyes and depart from them. We then went by to the daycare where Stacy signed up the kid.

AN: PLZ READ AND REVIEW!!


	7. Fights and Talks

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!!

_STACY'S POV_

"See ya later!" I waved as Two-bit left to go find Sodapop and Steve. The sun was starting to set now and Tess, Dally, and I were walking passed the empty lot. I stopped in my tracks as I saw the sky. The clear blue sky was now filled with shades of pink, orange, and a little purple and were wrapping around clouds, making them glow with a golden look. It was absolutely beautiful.

"Stacy!" Dally called and I looked over at him and saw his annoyed look.

"Isn't it perfect." I say as I sighed.

"I'll never get what's so great about a sunset." Dally says as he lit up a cigarette.

"The sun set's here too?" Tess asked me and I smile down at her.

"Yep. All over the world, the sun sets but it's at different times." I tell her and I glance over when I here a snort. "Would you like to say something Dallas?"

He just gave me a look. "Do you really think the kid understands what you're saying to her?"

I gave him a look. "She's two not one."

"I bet she won't even remember this in a few weeks." Dally says as he shook his head at me.

"I bet _you_ won't even remember this in a few weeks." I countered as we started walking again.

"Must you think so little of me?" Dally asked me with a brow raised and I laughed.

"Must you think so little of my child?" I asked him.

He rolled his eyes. "I just don't like kids. They annoy the hell out of me."

"Probably 'cause you're mean to them." I told him. "Does Tess annoy you?"

Tess looked up at him, hearing her name in the conversation.

Dally glanced down at her. "Not too much. She only bugs me when she starts to act like you."

I gave him a look. "So I bug you?"

"Well duh." He says. "Especially when you start to mouth off to me."

"Well I'm sorry buddy but ain't nobody going to tell me how to talk to them except God himself." I yelled at him.

He gave me a heated glare. "And that's exactly why you bug me, or at least one of the reasons."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Oh and what are the other things I do to bug you, oh great one."

I could tell he was pissed off now. "Oh I don't know, how about the fact that you never think before you act! You take your kid and y'all _walk_ in the _dark _to the store even though it could have waited till the morning and then you get jumped."

I was ready to punch the sorry excuse of a person. "How was I to know that I'd get jumped?"

"Why it's called commonsence. I here this guy that you keep bringing up called God gave it to you but I could be wrong. He must have skipped you." Dally yelled at me.

"Oh and you're so flawless I could only hope to be like you." I told him sarcastically.

He glared at me. "What the hell is your problem?"

I wanted to scream. "You're my problem you jackass!" I then grabbed Tess's hand and walked off. "Oh and don't worry about ever having to deal with me or my kid again 'cause I promise you I won't ever make the mistake of talking to you again. I won't bother your friends either."

"Stacy!" He yelled but he didn't bother to come after me. It's not like I was running either since I had Tess and all.

"Dally mean?" Tess asked me after we were a good block away from him.

I smiled down sadly at her. "Yeah, he's mean."

_I should have known he'd be like this. It was so clear that it'd turn out this way yet stupid me was starting to get sucked back into this shit again. I swore I wouldn't get involved with another guy again and here I am, not even all the way involved and yet I'm still able to get hurt. Maybe I should just keep to myself from now on. It surely wouldn't hurt to try._

"Stacy?" I herd someone say and I looked to see that guy Tim.

"Shepard." I greated as I walked on. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to someone right now, let alone Dal's friend.

"Wait up." He says and I could hear him running against the concriet. "What's up?"

"The sky." I say as I coutinued to walk on. All I wanted to do is go home and get dinner ready. I didn't want to talk to Dally's friend or Donny's old friend.

"What's wrong?" He asked me as he looked into my eyes and I turned away and coutinued to head home.

"Nothing." I say. It's none of his business why I'm upset just like it was no one elses.

"Stacy." He said in his deep voice and if I wasn't focusing on getting home, I would have turned to look at him.

"What?" I snapped. "There's nothing wrong and if there was, what makes you think I'd tell you?"

Tim didn't go off yelling at me like I thought he'd do or walk away like I wanted. He did the last thing I thought the gang leader would do. He pulled me into his chest and held me there, his stone grip making it impossible to break free.

"What's wrong?" He asked me again and I had to will myself not to cry.

"Nothing that was right in the first place." I told him with a small laugh.

"Come with me." He says as he let me go but takes my free hand into his. He leads Tess and me to his house and we walk on in.

"So?" I say as I sat on his couch which looked like it could fold out and become a bed. I picked Tess up and placed her in my lap carefully, making sure she didn't hit my cut.

Tim walked down the hall and after a few minutes, he came back. I couldn't believe what he had in his hands. Actually I could but I didn't want to. There was the necklace Donny wore everyday since he got it. It was the only thing our grandparents had got him before they passed away. They got him the silver cross with blue dimands in it and me ruby earrings. As you can guess, our grandparents had a good bit of money.

"He told me if something ever happened to him and I ever ran into you, he wanted you to have this." Tim handed it to me as a few tears leaked from my eyes.

I placed it around my neck and held onto the pendent for dear life. I still didn't understand why he had to die. Sure he did horrible things to survive and sure he did fight when there was really no need but hey, don't we all? I just wish the pain would go away for once. I was so sick of having to see him in my dreams each and every night and then wake up realizing that he's dead and he's never coming back.

I looked down and saw Tess fast asleep. It was around six o'clock and she hadn't had a nap so I guess this wasn't anything unusual. I moved her over so that she lay right beside me on the couch and out of my lap. As soon as I did that, Shepard had me back in a hug only this time, I didn't try to get away.

"I keep thinking that this is a dream." I told him. "That I'm really back in Florida and that I never met Cody and Donny's still alive and my life is some what normal. I just wish things were how they use to be."

I felt Tim rub my back. "For a while I thought that as soon as I came in here that he'd be awake and bugging the hell out of Curly while Angela cooked breakfist. I use to here his laughter in my head everytime I walked into this house but over time it's gone away."

I whipped at my eyes. "You swear to God you want think I'm crazy and you won't tell nobody?" Once I got a nod of the head I coutinued. "I have flashbacks when I go to sleep. Like I'll see things from my childhood about him when I go to sleep. That's why I'm usually up at night. After those dreams, I never want to go back asleep which is kind of stupid since I think I'd rather want to be in my dreams where he is then out in reality where everyone who's ever hurt me is."

"It'll be OK." Tim told me. "Everything's going to work out."

I looked up at him and shook my head, a small smile

on my face. "I use to believe those kind of lies. I'm smart enough now to know it's not. Nothing will ever be OK ."

"What are you talking about?" Shepard asked me.

I looked down at my sleeping kid. "She's the best yet scariest thing that's ever happened to me. I just wish that there was something I could do to stop them from placing her in foster home."

Tim looked at me confused. "What are you talking about? Why would they place her in foster home?"

I looked back at her. "I won't be alive for very much longer Tim."

He gave me a bewild look before telling me to coutinue.

"Cody, her dad, will stop at nothing till I'm dead. I don't know if he'll go so far and try to kill her but I do know that when he's out of jail and finds me, I'll be six feet under soon. That's why I came here. Donny told me this was a good place to be in hiding but I seem to have already made one big mistake already, I told everyone my real name." I say as I looked down. I wasn't in denial about what was going to happen to me like many people were. If it wasn't for Tess, I probably wouldn't have even came all the way out here. There really isn't anyone else worth living for and she's the only thing that kept me from killing myself when I herd the news about Donny.

"Why are you giving up already?" Tim asked me. "There has to be a way around this."

"Like what?" I asked him. "I can't go to the police because he can make the court see that I'm an unfit mother and Tess would be taken away from me. I know hardly anyone and know no one that could help."

"Kid, I ain't going to let anyone get to you." Tim told me and I looked up at him.

"Why do you care so much about me?" I asked him. "You hardly know me."

"I know a lot about you from Donny." Tim told me with an expression I couldn't read. "He used to tell me all about you and what y'all two always did together or what y'all would argue about more than anything."

I gave him a small smile as the tears finally stopped falling from my eyes. "Really? He used to tell me about y'all here too. Said that you were pretty cold and emotionless but he knew how to get you to lighten up and smile. He used to tell me all about Curly and Angela, saying he got lucky when God only stuck him with me and not them."

Tim chuckled. "Ain't that the truth."

I laughed lightly. "Oh they can't be so bad. Don told me that Angela could be really sweet sometimes and Curly could be funny as hell and a pretty good kid."

Tim just shook his head but I could see a small smile on his face. "Yeah Angel's nice one minute and then screaming the next and Curly's a pretty good kid when he's not running his mouth to the wrong people or getting into meaningless fights with people he knows he can't take so I have to go and save his ass."

I smiled. "Yeah but isn't that your job anyway? To look after your younger siblings."

Tim just laughed. "I'd trade with ya in a heartbeat."

I smiled and shook my head. "You want to watch over a two year old twenty four seven?"

Tim looked over at her. "I forgot about her."

I laughed. "My point exactly."

Tim just looked me over. "Donny used to tell me how stubborn you could be and that you were the weridest kid ever. I don't know about the strange part but I am beginning to see the stubborn part."

I rolled my eyes. "If that kid was alive, I'd kill him."

It was silent after that and for a while. I couldn't really think of anything to say and he seemed to be having my luck.

"I never imaged a gang leader would be like you." I finally told him.

He raised a brow. "What do mean by that?"

I smiled. "You held me when I cried. Only one person's ever done that."

"Just don't go around spreading it. You're the first person not related to me that I've done that for." He told me. "You want something to drink?"

"No that's OK, I probably should be going." I say as I start to get up.

"Stay awhile kid." He told me. "What's to do anywhere else?"

I sighed and nodded. "You're right."

He went into the kitchen and came back with a coke for me and a beer for him. I smiled and nodded my thanks as I opened it just as the front door was opened and slammed shut.

"I'm home!" A male voice called and we were soon greated with flying shoes

"So what and don't throw your shoes all over the damn place." Tim yelled after him as he walked into the room.

"Hey." Curly greeted me. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." I say kind of ackwardly.

"Where's Angel?" Tim asked him exspectingly.

"Uh you see." Curly started and Tim's eyes were already narrowing. "We sort of had an arguement and she decided that she wanted to go to Kimmy's house so I thought that I'd look out for her wants and dropped her off."

After a long list of swearing that made me glad Tess was asleep and couldn't hear it, Tim looked over at his kid brother and I kind of felt for him there. "Are you crazy boy? You honestly think she went to Kimmy Wilson's house? She probably snuck off to that no good punk John Jacob's house to go and fuck."

"I thought he was in jail." Curly says as he sits in the arm chair farthest away from Tim.

"He got out today." Tim snapped at him.

"Oh." Curly says as he looks anywhere but at Tim. "Why do I always have to drive her around and look out for her? Ain't she a big girl?"

"Because you're her older brother and I said so, that's why!" Tim yelled at him.

"You're her older brother too!" Curly says but soon shuts up once he see's the look Tim was throwing him. I had to contain my laughter right then and there. It was actually pretty funny to see them arguing.

"I'm the oldest which means I'm in charge and when I tell you to do something, you best do it little boy." Tim told him in a voice that even had the hairs on my arms standing up.

"OK." Curly says as he looked anywhere but at his brother. "I wasn't thinking at the time and I thought I could trust her. Sorry."

"I've about had it with that girl! If she honestly thinks she's going to sleep around with every other guy and make a whore of herself and our name then she's got another thing coming." Tim then went on cursing.

"If you want then maybe I could talk to her." I tell him making both boys look at me questioning. "I have a kid and I'm only sixteen. She's what, a year younger? I could tell her all the hell I've went through and scare her into listening to y'all."

Tim snapped his fingers and gave another rare grin. "That's perfect. Thanks Stacy, this might work."

* * *

It was later that day and I was still at the Shepard's when Angela came home and went straight to her room. Tess was now awake so I declaired Curly and Tim babysitters for the moment. Walking down the hall, I knocked on the door that I was told was Angela's.

"Who is it?" Her voice sounded clearly annoyed as her music was turned off.

"Stacy, can I come in?" I asked praying she'd say yes. I sure hope this works.

"Stacy? Sure." She the opens the door and greats me with a smile. "What's up?"

"Uh I just need to talk to you, can I come in?" I asked her and walked on in once she nodded. Her room was in pink and blue and had to be the girliest room I've ever been in. She had bright curtains that were hung up by the window and above her bed like a princess would have. There were stuffed animals on a shelf and nail stuff on the next while Elvis and other hot music posters were hanging on the walls.

"Nice room." I commented as I sat on her bed. Either she's really good at sewing and she made her blanket or she swiped it from the store.

"Thanks." She says as she sits in her chair at her desk. "What's up?"

I sighed. "Tim and Curly are really worried about you."

She instintly gets up and rolls her eyes. "Is that was this is about? Look I'm fine and you can tell them that!"

"Angela listen to me." I told her as I got up too. "Look they didn't ask me to do this but the way they were talking got me kind of worried."

"Why would you be worried?" She crossed her arms. "You barely know me."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean I want you or anyone else to go down the road I went. Angela, do you honestly want to know where the path you're taking ends?" I asked her as she walked over to her bed and sits down.

"He uses protection." She told me.

"Which he 'cause I sure no that there's more then one." I told her as I sat next to her.

"They all use them." She says as she looks at a magazine on her bed.

"Are you positive? Are you on the pill?" I asked her and she sort of looked away.

"Man why do I feel like this is the most embarrassing thing in the world?" She asks. "I brag to my friends all the time."

"If it's because you think I'll run and tell your brothers, don't worry. I won't say a thing about what you tell me." I told her.

She looked me over. "How do I know if you're telling me the truth?"

I smiled. "Trust me, I swear I won't tell. Scouts honer." I held up my right hand making Angela laugh.

"You remind me a lot of Donny." She told me and I just looked down some what. I never thought I was a thing like Don but whatever.

"So tell me, what all have you done with a guy?" I asked her.

"Went all the way a few times." She says and I gave her a look. "OK more than a few. It's just, I feel so great when I'm with them. It's like I'm actually good at something and they get really into it."

I smiled. "Yeah guys seem to dig it a lot."

Angela smirked. "You got that right."

"I'm going to tell you some things about my life." I told her. "Now here's where I trust you. No one knows this whole story and I want to keep it between only you and me. You won't tell, I won't tell savvy?"

Angela nodded seriously. "Sure."

"OK. Well when I found out I was pregnant, I made the worst mistake of my life. I told the father, who tried to kill me. Be careful who you trust Angel, they might seem nice but honey, that's usually a cover up. Cody sure was good at covering up the truth and boy oh boy did I fall for that bastards lies. Donny saved me the first time Cody tried to kill me by talking with me over the phone and told me what to do."

"I remember him telling me you were in trouble and that he'd have to leave soon." Angela says. "I wish he would have been able to."

I gave a small smile. "Me too. Well anyway, he was coming up with countless ways to kill me while my mom was doing the same. You see, my parents wern't the best. Once my mom found out, she tried everything she could to try and make me get rid of it. I don't understand why she put so much effort into it before kicking me out. Hell, I would have figured that would have been her first choice.

_ANGEL'S POV_

"She kicked you out?" I asked her. "Where did you go?"

She gave a small smile. "At first I was sleeping on the streets, trying to get a job. Of course I was thirteen at the time and nobody would hire me because of my age and which side I was from. Things were really hard, especially when I became six months along and the baby was really making me hungry. Hell I starved a lot in my life time but I never felt the hunger pains like I did then. I felt so bad, not just because of my need for food but because I knew that I couldn't give my baby what it needed and I just knew that it would die and it'd be all my fault."

"But it wouldn't be!" I argued. "It would be your stupid mom's fault because she kicked you out and the dad's fault since it does take two to make a baby."

She smiled a little. "Well I've always figured it my fault. Anyway, my luck was starting to turn slightly when I met this girl who happened to be really sweet. She was middle class and was working at a hot dog stand where I was near. I had been staying under a bridge where it was by and was figuring out a plan to steel a few of there hot dogs when she, Elaine, came up to me and gave me four of them. She told me she'd been watching me and thought she'd save me the trouble. We got to talking and she offered me a place to stay and said she could get me a job with her and I gladly excepted. I don't know where I'd be without her today."

"Man I think I'd die if I had to live life that way and starve." I told her as I tried to picture me in her shoes. "If Tim and Curly ever died or left me out in the cold like that, I think I would kill myself."

"I thought about it more than once and probably would have if Tess wasn't there. I can't tell you how many times I've held my blade to my wrist or a gun to my head but all I could think about was what would happen to Tess? She has no one to take care of her or when she was in my stomach I kept thinking how unfair I was being, taking away an innocent life and how would that get me anywhere? I just couldn't do it." Stacy says. "I went into labor early and almost lost my baby girl and I can't tell you what I felt then. I had already lost the most important person to me and if I would have lost Tess too, I can honestly tell you that I would have left that hospital and shot myself without second thinking it. But hope looked up and Tess survived but we were no where near out of the picture. We were OK for about a year or two before things went south. I had this crazy exboyfriend chacing after us and he found out where I was staying and killed Elaine's boyfriend. I was out of there after that, trying to find a safe place.

"I was running with Tess in my arms, thinking I had to find a safe place for my baby while Cody was chasing after me. He had a gun and I knew it which only made me run faster. Well I was running passed this bank when he shot at me. Some random guy saw it coming and pushed me down in time, taking the bullet for me. They arrested Cody for that but since the guy didn't die he didn't get the chair, just a few months. It turns out that my mom had died and I had to sell everything. Luckly, I was able to get some money out of mom's will and once I sold the house I was set for awhile. I knew I had to get out of Panama City so I decided taking Donny's advice and came here." Stacy finishs.

"God I don't know what I would have done." I say as I lay back on my bed. Sure, my parents are horrible but I always had brothers to turn to, even if I was a total bitch to them sometimes or most the time for Curly. "Why didn't you just come to live with Donny sooner? You know he wanted you too."

She looked down a little. "I was caught up in drugs and guys and wasn't using my head at all. If I could do it all over again, I surely would had jumped at the chance to go. Don't get me wrong, I love Tess more than anyone alive, but I'm still not ready to be a mother. They say you adventually catch on but it's been two years and I'm still not that great."

"I saw you with her." I tell her as I placed a hand on the girl's tiny shoulder. "You're great with her."

"I can't give her what she needs!" Stacy says as a few tears fall from her eyes. "Don't end up like me Angel, don't. Don't go sleepin' with all those guys 'cause you think it's cool 'cause honey, it surely gets you no where near popular. I had a bunch of friends when I was hanging with Cody but as soon as they herd I was pregnant, they all left me. Do you honestly think the crouds going to stay with you and help you out?"

I thought about that. Maybe Kimmy would but I knew a lot of girls wouldn't from exsperiece. A girl in our click got pregnant and we pick on her all the damn time. Hell, maybe Kimmy would join Sylvia and the others and look down on me if it happened.

Stacy placed both hands on mine. "Angel honey, you have to be careful who you sleep with. One, you never know what they got. Two, you may not know if they're really using protection and three, you may not know what kind of person they are. Cody tried to fuckin' kill me and he's still trying to. You don't want to end up like me, living on the streets, waking up in the middle of the nights with a kid to look after, and trying to hide even though it's useless. You're way too pretty for that Angela."

I hugged her tightly. "You don't deserve any of the shit you've went through."

I felt her hug me back. "Thanks sweetie. Now please promise me that you'll be more careful and you won't be slutting around with guys you hardly know. Let a relationship take time to form and then do it. No matter what people say about you Angela, it's the best way. I would do that if I ever got the chance again."

"I'll try Stacy, I promise." I told her as I pulled away.

She smiled. "Good. Now one other favor."

I gave her a confused look. "What else?"

She smiled. "Go give those brothers of yours a hug while you can. Take it from someone who know's, they'll be gone sooner than you think. Try not to give them such a hard time either. When everything's going wrong they're the only ones you can truely turn to and you don't want to ruin that."

I smiled at her. "I'll remember that."

We walked into the livingroom to see Tim watching Tess, who was sitting in Curly's lap, amused.

"Why?" Tess asked him as she looked up into his dark blue eyes with a smile on her face.

"I don't know." Curly told her, making her laugh and she asked again. Over and over they said the same words and I guess it was kind of funny to see how they could be so easily entertained by that. Curly hates kids so it's kind of strange to see him playing with one but whatever.

I went up to Tim and hugged him and kissed his cheek. "I love you and I'm sorry I worried you." I then did the same to Curly and they both looked at me shocked.

"What?" I asked them confused. "I just did the nicest thing I'll ever do and you two just stare at me like I'm some alien or something."

"I'm in shock." Curly said as he coutinued to stare at me with his mouth slightly opened.

"I'm right there with you." Tim says as I roll my eyes.

Tim turns to Stacy, who was smiling at the sceen. "You must be a mircle worker."

She laughed. "I just told her some things that happened to me and she agreed that she needed to stop what she's doing, right?" She asked me and I nodded.

"Yep. So what do y'all want for dinner?" I asked as I walked into the kitchen to see what we had. I don't know why, but I was in a really good mood. "Are you staying Stacy?"

She shook her head as she held Tess's hand. "No we really need to get going. I'll see y'all around."

"You sure will! I might be needing some more help here!" Tim called and Stacy and I both started laughing. Why was everyone so shocked? Am I really that mean? Curly I can totally understand to a point but Tim? Nahh they must be just stupid.

AN: I KNOW TIM'S A LITTLE OUT OF CHARACTER BUT SORRY. THAT'S JUST HOW I PUT HIM IN THIS STORY. PLZ REVIEW!!


	8. Making up and Making out

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!! I'VE SEEN A LOT OF YOU HAVE ADDED THIS TO YOUR FAVORITE STORY AND FAVORITE AUTHOR AND THAT MEANS A LOT TO ME! THANKS AND I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER.

_DALLY'S POV_

I cursed myself as I kicked a beer can as hard as I could. Why the hell did I just say that to her? Why the hell didn't I go after her? _Because I'm Dallas Winston, that's why. I shouldn't be wasting my time with her anyway. I mean, I wasn't getting anything from her like I do when I'm with Sylvia. This was probably for the best anyway...yeah, right. This isn't suppose to happen. I'm not suppose to get attached to any girl, let alone one in trouble and with a kid. What the hell happened to make me turn like this?!_

I walked around town, hoping to spot Stacy. '_Why the hell did I let her get away? She could have easily gotton jumped again and this time we might not know it. Damnit to hell!' _It was already dark out so maybe she went home like any normal person would do if they had a kid. Then again, Stacy isn't that normal.

I started heading to her house after I searched all the places I was sure we showed her. As I turned down her street, I could see two people's shadows from the street light. One was a lot smaller than the other and was holding it's hand. I walked quietly and quickly to see if maybe, just maybe it was Stacy and Tess. They appearently herd me or had the feeling someone was following because they started to run. I quickly grabbed the taller one's arm, pulling both to a complete stop. My luck was good because it was Stacy and Tess.

"What the hell do you think you're doing out here in the dead of night?" I asked her as her eyes darkened once she realized it was me.

"Going home now let go of me Winston." She says as she jerks her arm free.

I grabbed her again when she tried to walk off again. "Stacy -"

"What Dallas?!" She cut me off. "I told you I wouldn't bother you any more so could you please not bother me?!"

"Stacy damnit! I didn't mean what I fuckin' said earlier." I was starting to get irritated. I never once apologized to anyone except maybe Johnny a few times and I surely wasn't used to anyone yelling back when I was trying to.

"Oh really?" She asks as she crosses her arms over her chest, clearly not believing a word I'm saying.

"Would I fuckin' waste my breath on it if I wasn't?" I asked her.

She looked towards her house. "It's late and I still have to fix dinner. I gotta go."

"Not without me you ain't." I told her and she turned back around to look at me.

"Dallas." She sighs. "What do you want from me? What the hell do you want from me?"

I just stared at her. How the hell am I suppose to answer that when I don't even know?

She sighs again and takes Tess's hand, walking off towards her house. I follow behind quietly, trying to think of something to say. I walked into her house and watched as Stacy went into the kitchen and took out some left over hamburgers and got out a bag of French Fries to cook while Tess ran off to play in her room.

"You want something to eat?" She asks softly and with a small frown.

"Nahh, I ate already." I tell her as I leaned against the wall. I watched her fix Tess's plate and then put everything up, calling the girl for dinner. "You ain't eating?"

She glanced over at me. "I'm not hungry."

I gave her a look. "You barely eat anything as it is."

She glared at me. "That's because I've never been a big eater."

"Yeah well your parents should have made you eat and maybe you wouldn't be so small." I told her as I looked her over. It'd be a miracle if she was healthy.

"Yeah well my parents are the reason I hardly ever ate." She yells at me before storming off into the living room.

I followed her. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." She says as she plops down on the couch.

I sit down right next to her, much to her dislike. "It sure sounds like something."

She glared at me as she tried to get up but I placed my arm around her so she couldn't. "Dallas, let me go!"

I coutinued to stare at her until she finally cracked. "OK, OK. You really want to know? Fine, my parents had a special punishing system. My old man used to knock me around while my mom used to starve me. Happy now?"

"Yeah because something like that would put a giant smile on my face." I say sarcastically as I pulled her closer to me. I baried my face into her neck and I felt her stiffen at first but soon relax.

"Dallas?" She asks softly.

"Yeah?" I asked her. She felt so good being beside me. So soft and warm.

"What do you want from me? What is it you think you can get from me?" She asks me and I pull away slightly so I can look in her eyes.

Her gray eyes showed tiredness, hurt, and worry. "I honestly don't know. It feels good to have you by me."

She searched my eyes as if looking for something. "What do you mean?"

"I mean." I tell her. "I want to be with you Stacy. Call me fuckin' crazy for waiting so long to finally say it but it's the truth."

* * *

FIND OUT NEXT TIME WHAT HAPPENS!! )

* * *

JUST JOKING LOL SORRY ABOUT THAT BUT I COULDN'T HELP IT! IT WAS SO TEMPING!!

* * *

She looked up at me shocked. "Why? Why would you want to be with someone like me? I have a kid, a crazy exboyfriend after to me, and I'm appreantly pretty annoying."

I held her tighter against me. "Stacy I didn't mean that earlier. I was just being a little bit of a jackass."

She gave me a look. "A little?"

I rolled my eyes. "OK I was being a _total_ jackass but I can't help that sometimes, it's just who I am."

"Well what makes you think I want to be with a guy that turns into a total jackass? Every guy I've dated has been and I swore to myself I wouldn't go through it again." Stacy tells me.

I sigh. "Stacy, what do I have to say to convince you that I won't ever say anything like it again?" _Since when do I ask such pathetic questions? I should be able to act however I want and if they have a problem, fuck them. _

"Dallas, I can't get involved with someone right now. Cody's going to be out of jail soon and once he finds me, I'll be dead in a ditch somewhere." She says and I held her tighter than ever.

"Not if I can help it." I told her. "No one will touch you as long as you're by me."

She looked up in my eyes. "As much as you want to keep me safe, Cody will be able to get to me no matter what you do. I know him and he's not going to stop until he see's that I'm dead. I don't want to get caught up in a relationship only knowing that I'll be long gone soon. Besides, I know your type."

I raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

She gave me a look. "You're into it for sex. Well my daughter sleeps with me and I am not having sex again for a _long_ time."

I shook my head with a grin on my face. "Is that what you think this is really about? Girl, if I wanted a good fuck I'd go back to my exgirlfriend. It just feels right when I'm with you, that's why I'm after you. But you know, if you ever do change you mind about fucking, I'll be ready. Any time, any place, any hour of the day I'll be praying you're ready."

She laughed and hit my shoulder and I smiled down at her. No girl's laugh has ever made me feel happy or want to throw my head back and laugh too. It was so strange to me yet felt so right. If this is love, God am I in trouble.

"Mommy, I'm tired." Tess came up to us.

"OK, want me to tuck you in bed now?" Stacy gets up from my arms.

"Yeah." She says and Stacy takes the kid's hand and brings her into her room. After a long five minute wait, she came back out quietly with a smile on her face.

"Now where were we?" She asks as she sits back in my lap.

I wrapped my arms tightly around her. "Right here." I then start kissing her neck.

_STACY'S POV_

I can't believe Dally Winston actually likes me! Me, Stacy Marie Richards who had a kid a fourteen. Stacy Marie Richards who has a crazy exboyfriend after her. Stacy Marie Richards who turned him down when the sex conversation came up. How the hell is that going to work? Surely that's what all guys like him are after in a girl. I just can't help but wonder if he's really digging me or what but I sure like this.

I held back a moan as he sucks on my neck. God did that feel good. When every other guy I went with did that, it always felt werid or annoying. It's anything but annoying now, that's for sure!

"Dal." I say as I moved my hair and turned my head to the side, allowing him to kiss more area on my neck.

"Yeah?" He asks before taking advantage of what I did.

I couldn't help but moan now. My neck seemed to be my hot spot appreantly. I herd him chuckle as he did it harder, adding onto the pleasure. "You know I never said yes." I gasped out.

"But you never said no." He counters.

"Would ya just stop that for one minute so I could answer?" I say even though I really didn't want him to.

I didn't have to look to know he was smirking. "You know you don't want me to stop."

"It's becoming very easy to hate you right now." I joke as he finally stopped kissing me.

He chuckled. "Same here baby, same here."

"I told myself I wouldn't trust a man again." I told him as I looked up into his eyes. There was a long pause before I went on. "Don't make me regret this."

He smiled bigger than I've ever seen him do. "Don't worry babe."

I laughed at his grin. "One chance and that's all, I mean -"

He cut me off by kissing me deeply. Our tongs searched each others mouths for what felt like a wonderful hour before I pulled away, trying to get my breath back. Dally pushed me down against the couch as he kissed me again and I grinned as I wrapped my arms around his neck. God did he feel good.

His kisses soon traveled down to the rest of my body and he was soon unbuttoning my blouse. He sent me a look as if asking if he could and I nodded. As long as there was no possiblity that I could end up pregnant, he could do whatever the hell he wanted as long as if felt good.

It went on like this for a while before I finally began to feel too tired. "Dal." I say as I stopped kissing his bare chest.

"Yeah baby?" He asks as he stopped kissing my shoulder.

"It's getting late and I should probably get to bed." I tell him as I pulled away slightly.

He raised up a little but was still hovering over me. "Are you sure?"

I laughed. God he reminded me of Tess when I said it was time to leave the park. "Yeah but if you're nice we might can try this again tomorrow, just not infront of Tess."

He grinned. "Would you like my company in your room?"

I grinned. "Tess is sleeping in there and I am not going to risk her waking up and seeing us kissing."

He gave me a sad look, making me laugh. Wasn't he, Dallas Winston, suppose to be cold all the time? That's how all the other hoods I've dated were. Maybe he's different. Maybe I was right to say yes to him.

"Well what if I didn't do anything?" He asks as I get up.

I gave him a look. "You, not do anything? Pul-ease!"

He gave me a smirk. Now that's the Dallas Winston I know. "I can do it."

"Yeah if you sleep right here on the couch." I tell him as I stand up and stretch. Dear God, let me not have any hickeys tomorrow. I can just picture me trying to explain the bruises to Tess.

"But your couch is a day time couch." Dally argues. "If I sleep on this then I'm liable to hurt my back and neck."

I laughed. "Well I here Sodapop is pretty good at massages."

He gave me a look. "Now that would be just a little werid to have him sitting on my back and rubbing me."

I laughed at the image I was getting. "Pony told me he gives him and Darry massages all the time when they pull a muscle at work or running track."

"And they're _brothers_. That's different." He argues. "But if I sleep in your bed then I'm sure I'll be fine."

I shook my head and laughed a little. "You arn't going to quit until I say yes, huh?"

He smirked. "Nope baby." I walked into the bathroom and threw my bra and shirt into the hamper along with my jeans. I grabbed my tank top and shorts out of the dryer and was about to put them on but was interupted with a cat call. I looked over and saw Dally leaning against the wall with that dumb smirk of his. '_At least it's dark so he can't see me blush.' _

He walked up to me and kissed me deeply once again, wrapping me up in his arms. If I could stay in the warmth and protection that his arms offered for the rest of my life, I would in a heart beat. After a few minutes, I pulled away from the kiss and looked up in his eyes. "You can stay but I have to get dressed."

"No you don't." Dal argued and I rolled my eyes. I hurried and pulled my clothes on before smiling back at him and beckoned him to follow. "Be quiet and keep your hands and lips to yourself. That includes tong." I whisper to him as we walked into the room.

"Got it." He whispers back and I climbed in the bed and get in the middle, pulling Tess into my arms. I felt the bed dip and strong arms recapture me. I looked back at him and saw him grin. "You didn't say nothing about arms."

I rolled my eyes. "Goodnight Dallas."

"Night Stacy." He says and I soon fell right to sleep.

AN: I KNOW THIS IS LIKE MY SHORTEST CHAPTER BUT I REALLY WANTED TO END IT THERE AND START THE NEXT CHAPTER AS IN THE MORNING. THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE A LOT LONGER, LIKE ALL THE OTHER CHAPTERS BESIDES THIS ONE, SO DON'T WORRY. PLEASE REVIEW!! THEY REALLY KEEP ME GOING!


	9. The First Cut Is The Deepest

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS ONCE AGAIN!!

_TWO-BIT'S POV_

Pony, Johnny, and I were bored over at the house so we decided to check up on our dear ole friend Ms.Stacy Richards. We knocked on the door at around eight thirty and soon herd tiny foot steps running.

"Who is it?" I herd a little girl's voice ask and I knew it was Tess.

"Two-bit." I say with a grin on my face and the door soon opened.

"Hey buddy!" She greated as she ran up and hugged my leg.

I picked her up and grinned. "Hey there Little Missy."

We walked into the house and I didn't see Stacy anywhere. "Where's your Mommy?"

"She's asleep." Tess says as she places her finger over her lips. "Shush."

I grinned. "Are you suppose to be opening the door while she's not up?"

"As long as I know who it is, why not?" She asks and I place her down on the ground. "Want to wake Momma up?"

"Sure." I say with a grin while Pony and Johnny sit on the couch, clearly not wanting to be part of the great deal of fun we were about to have.

We walked quietly to the room where Tess said they slept in. I slowly opened the door and was stunned at what I saw. Dally was fast asleep next to Stacy and the way he was holding her let me know that she was his and no one elses.

"Well it's about time." I say to myself with a smile.

"What?" Tess asks me.

"Nothin'." I say as I shake my head. It wasn't my place to tell her what was going on between the two. "On the count of three."

"I can't count." She says.

I sighed as I thought for a second. "OK, let's say our favorite Mickey characters and then jump on the bed."

She grinned. "OK. Minni!"

I grinned down at her. "Mickey!"

"Pluto." She says.

"Donald." I say.

"Charge!" We both yell and jump on the bed, startling the couple. Dally pulls Stacy closer to him and opens up one eye to look at us, an annoyed expression plastered on his face.

"What the hell?" He asks as Stacy wakes up, looking at the two of us.

"Why are you in my bedroom Two-bit?" She then sits up a little.

I grinned at her. "Now that is not the question here Stacy. The question is, why is Dallas in your bed?"

Stacy blushed a little before telling Tess to go play and that she was getting up to cook in a second. I busted out laughing while Tess ran off to do what her mother asked her.

"I knew it." I say as Dally hit me upside the head. "Didn't I tell ya Dal, I knew you liked her."

"Shut it." Dal told him as Stacy left his arms and grabbed some clothes out of her closet.

She looked over at me while I grinned from ear to ear at her. "Shut up Two-bit!"

"I haven't said anything yet!" I laughed. "Who shall thou tell first?"

"Thou shall keep thou's mouth shut before someone sews it." Stacy threatened as she left and went into the bathroom.

I laughed. "My mouth's opened!" I yelled so she could hear me but my only responce was the sound of the shower coming on.

I looked over at Dally, who was giving me his signature glare. "What all did y'all do?" I questioned as I did the wave with my eyebrows, ignoring his look.

"Is that really any of your business?" Dal says before getting up.

"Dallas Winston doesn't want to brag?" I placed a hand to my heart. "I'm shocked."

He coutinued to glare at me. "Shut it Matthews."

"Must not have got none." I say and shut up once I saw the glare he was firing my way. "OK, OK I'm leaving." I then left and went into the living room to play dolls with Tess.

"What's up Two-bit?" Pony asks. "What was all that laughing about?"

I grinned at him. "Dally and Stacy."

They got what I talking about and blushed a little. I laughed. "I don't know if it was like that or not but just keep spreading the word boys."

Tess looked up confused. "What are you talking about?"

"We just think it's cute how Dally slept with y'all." I tell her.

She smiled. "Oh."

Dally came out of his room and grabbed his shirt off the floor and slipped it over his head. He sat down on the couch beside Johnny, burning holes in my head. "If I was you Ma tthews, I'd keep your mouth shut."

I grinned and nodded. "Yes sir Captain Jail Bird!"

Tess laughed while Dally coutinued to glare. Stacy soon came out with her hair soaked and in a pair of cut off jeans and a pink shirt. She smiled and kissed Tess good morning before asking what we wanted for breakfist.

"Food." Tess says and I laughed while everyone else rolls their eyes.

"What kind of food and don't say the kind you eat?" Stacy says as she goes into the kitchen.

"The kind you swallow and digest." I say with a laugh.

Stacy smiles and shakes her head while Dally went into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her waist.

_STACY'S POV_

I leaned into Dal's arms and whispered into his ear, "Don't kiss me infront of Tess."

"Ruin all the fun why don't ya." He replys and I smirk.

"Of course." I then move out of his arms so I could take out the eggs. We'll have what I want since no one could give me a good enough answer. "Who all wants breakfist?"

"I already ate." Pony replys.

"Me!" Two-bit yells like a little kid. "Pony ate all the breakfist at his house."

Pony rolled his eyes. "Someone had to before you woke up."

"What about you Johnny?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Sure."

"How do y'all like them?" I asked as I got the pan ready.

"Any way." They both said.

I glance at Dally. "How do you like yours?"

He smirked and whispered in my ear some of the dirtiest shit I've ever herd. I blushed and gave him a look. "I will never ask you that again."

I started cooking while he laughed and wrapped his arms back around me. Once I was finished and fixed everone's plates, we ate in the living room. I sat on the couch between Tess and Dally while Two-bit sat on the floor with Pony and Johnny sat in the arm chair.

Tess looked up at me confused as she ate her breakfist. "What's wrong with your neck Mommy?"

Glory just kill me now. Two-bit was on the floor laughing now.

"It's all bruised." She says as she points to it.

Think, think fast! "I uh." I touched my neck. "A bug bit me and I hit at it. I must have hit it harder than I thought."

Two-bit was laughing even harder now, making me glare at him before glaring at Dally. He had to leave his marks in the most noticable spot.

"What did it look like?" She asks.

"Uh." A grin came on my face. "It was real ugly and discusting looking. The kind of bug that you're really scared to even touch."

I felt Dally glaring at me and smiled back at him. "Yes Dally?"

He wrapped his arms around my waist and gave me a look that promised pay back.

"Did you kill it?" Tess asks worriedly. "What if it bites me?"

I thought Two-bit was going to die, he was laughing so hard.

I smiled at her. "No baby, it won't bite you. If it did then Mommy would murder it alive."

She grinned and put her plate on the table. "Oh OK."

"What are we doing today?" Pony asks as Dally kicks Two-bit.

"I don't know." I say as I start to think. "I start my job tomorrow which is really going to suck."

"We'll drop by and visit ya." Johnny says quietly and I turned to smile at him.

"Thanks, that'll brighten my day. Just promise me y'all will leave Two-bit at home." I say as I looked at the almost twenty year old with a grin. I had never herd someone laugh so much over something that wasn't that funny.

"Sure thing." Dally says as I get up, much to his dislike, and take everyone's empty plates and put them in the sink.

"Can we go to the park Mommy?" Tess asks me.

I smiled. "Two conditions."

She grinned and jumped in my arms. "What?"

I grin, happy that my cut doesn't hurt much anymore. "You go get dressed."

"OK. What's the other?" She asks.

"No one makes me go down the slide." I say and they all laughed.

"I won't." She says.

I looked at the others. Pony, Johnny, and once Two-bit finally stopped laughing he agreed that they wouldn't.

I turned to Dally who just smirked. "Why should I?"

"Because I could not do something like you want." I threaten. This is going to be fun now that I have something over him.

He glared at me. "Fine, I won't."

I smiled and carried Tess into our room. After getting her dressed, we walked to the park. I sat in the spot under the tree like I did the other day while everyone but Dally and me ran off to play.

"You are a very evil little girl, did you know that?" He asks as he pulls me down into his lap and starts to kiss my neck.

"Cut it out before Tess see's." I tell him as I pull away even though I really didn't want to.

He rolled his eyes. "What do you think a two year old like herself would say?"

I gave him a look. "She'd ask questions and I don't want to have to lie to her again and I definitly don't want to give her the talk this early in her life."

Dally just rolled his eyes but backed off. He had his protective arms wrapped around me and was rocking me slightly while we watched the three guys try and catch Tess while they played tag. Before I knew it, Dal was taking the chain that held Donny's cross pendent off my neck and before I could question him about it, he took his ring off his finger and put it on the chain, tying it back around my neck when he was done.

I smiled and snuggled closer to him as a cold breeze started to blow through our hair. I shivered, cursing myself for not drying my hair as I pulled the hood to my black pull over on over my head. Dally's grip tightened on my and I felt him rest his chin on my head.

"This sure wasn't a day to wear shorts." I say and I sighed in relief as I looked over at Tess. At least I put jeans and a long sleeve shirt along with a jacket on her so she wouldn't be that cold.

"You got that right." He says. "And it certainly ain't a day to wear flip flops."

I looked down at my feet that felt like ice cubes. "You could have warned me."

I didn't have to look up to know Dally rolled his eyes. "Yeah because I know what it's like outside twenty four seven."

"Alright smarty." I say as the cold wind came back. "I say we go somewhere where it's warm."

"I know a way to make you warm." Dally says and I turned to look up at him, only to be captured in a kiss. My head was saying don't kiss back because Tess might look but my heart was saying let's do more than just this. In the end, my heart won. He was almost on top of me before we herd someone clear their throat and I prayed to God Tess wasn't near by.

We pulled away and looked up at the intruder to see that it was only Tim Shepard. "Hiya Tim." I say with a smile, hoping he wouldn't be mad about me being with Dally.

He raised a brow at me. "Hey kid, what's going on?"

"Well we were in the middle of something before you came along." Dally says as he glares at Shepard.

"We better stop anyway Dal, we're lucky Tess didn't see." I say as I pushed Dally up so I could sit up. Dally pulled me back into his lap as I pulled my hood back over my damp hair.

"So were you two dating after or before you left my house?" Tim questioned as he sat down against the tree infront of us.

"What were you doing at Shepards?" Dally asks me.

I rolled my eyes at his protective tone. "He asked me to come by and then I had a talk with Angela. It was after, Tim."

Tim nodded as he stared at Dally intensely before standing up. "You hurt her Winston and you'll deal with me."

Dally stared at him. "I won't."

"You better not." Tim says before he walks away.

"What was that about?" Dally asks me once he's out of sight.

I shake my head. "I don't know."

"What did Tim want to talk about yesterday?" He questioned me and I rolled my eyes.

"It's none of your business Dal." I say as I crossed my arms over my chest as the dreadful wind comes back.

"Damn right it's my business!" Dally says in a jealous tone. "Was he making a move on ya? Is that why he wanted to know when we started dating?"

I laughed. "That's rediculous, he just wanted to talk."

Dal gave me a glare. "Oh yeah? What would he have to say to you?"

I gave him a glare. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"He usually only invites girls to his house for one thing and that's sex." Dally told me with cold eyes.

I gave him a look. "Do you honestly believe I'd have sex with that guy? Please! He just wanted to talk is all."

"Am I'm suppose to believe that." Dally says as he rolled his eyes.

I got out of his lap. "What's your problem Winston?" I asked him in my coldest voice.

He glared at me. "My problem is that it sounding like you and Tim had a thing going on while I was searching the town for you."

I gave him a look. "How can you even _think _that?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because of the fact that it's sounding like my girlfriend fucked Tim Shepard before screwing around with me!" Dally yelled at me.

"All we did was talk Dallas!" I yelled back.

"Oh yeah, what'd you talk about?" Dally asked me, standing up now.

I stood up. "Is it really any of your business?"

"I knew it!" Dally shouted.

"What?" I asked him.

"You were fucking Tim Shepard!" He yelled as he glared at me. "Yet you don't want to fuck me!"

Tears were forming in my eyes. "How the hell could you ever accuse me of something like this? I was _not _fucking anyone, let alone Shepard!"

"Oh so you were sucking him!" Dally yelled and that was it. I started walking away before he could see me crying. I gave Two-bit, who was looking at me worriedly, a look to watch Tess while I made my way down the road.

"Stacy!" I herd Dally yell and soon herd someone running.

"What?" I yelled at him as he grabbed my arm. The tears were rolling freely down my face now. _I can't believe him! Why would he accuse me of something so stupid? Talk about the trust in this relationship!_

"If you wern't fuckin' Shepard then tell me what he would actually want to discuss with you." Dally says, his voice still bitter but not as loud as he was while ago.

"You want to know?" I asked him as I whipped at my tears. "He wanted to give me this necklace." I pull at the cross pendent next to his damn ring that I had a good mind to throw in his face. "Donny told him he wanted me to have it and he wanted to give it to me while it was on his mind! I hung out with Angela for awhile after that! You happy now?"

He just stared at me and I couldn't take it. I started to turn and leave, wanting to get away from the jackass that was sadly my boyfriend. I'm really wishing I would have stuck by my promise and said no to him.

He grabbed my arm again and pulled me into him, holding me tightly against his chest. "I'm sorry." He whispers in my ear. "So sorry, I didn't think."

I looked up at him as more tears came. "No, you didn't. You were just thinking that she already has a kid so she must be some kind of whore who'll sleep with everyone but her boyfriend!"

He held me closer. "That's not what I think."

I looked in his blue eyes. "Oh yeah, so what do you think of me?! I'm not dumb Dal, that's probably what half the town thinks of me."

"Baby, you're not a whore and anyone who thinks that is a fagot." Dally tells me as I tried to stop my tears. God was I sick of crying. "I'm sorry baby, I shouldn't have jumped at you like that."

"No, you shouldn't have." I agree with him.

"I just kept getting the image of you with Shepard. My last girl was always running off with him behind my back and I'm just so use to girls like that." Dally tells me as I finally stopped crying.

"Well I'm nothing like her most likely. I'm not one of those kinds of girls." I tell him as we started to sway from side to side.

"I know it." Dally whispers in my ear before kissing my cheek. "And I shouldn't have worried about that."

I smiled slightly at him. "No, you shouldn't."

He smiled. "Please tell me this doesn't count as my only chance."

I smiled and remembered last night. "I should count it but...I'm not. So help me Dallas Winston, if you mess up again it's goodbye."

He held me more tightly. "I won't."

I snuggled closer to him. "You better not."

AN: SO WHAT DO YOU THINK??


	10. It's Time To Change

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!

_STACY'S POV_

We were walking around town on our way to get some lunch. Two-bit, Tess, Pony, and Johnny were with Dallas and me now and we were in the middle of a debate on which diner to eat at. Two-bit and Dally wanted The Dingo, Pony and Tess wanted Dairy Queen, I wanted the Tastee Freeze, and Johnny didn't care.

"Why don't we just split up and eat where we want?" Two-bit came up with this idiotic idea.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh I don't know, maybe because we won't get to eat with each other?"

"Let's flip a coin." Dally says as he pulls out a nickle. "Call it in the air Tess."

"What do I call it?" She asks confused.

I laughed. "Say either heads or tails."

Dally flipped the coin. "Tails!" Tess yells and the coin soon travels down and lands on Dal's hand.

"Tails." Dally says. "OK so it's between the Dairy Queen and let's see what else."

"I want to call it!" Two-bit says with a grin.

"Stacy can." Dally says and I stuck my tong out at him teasingly.

"Heads." I say and it soon comes down.

"Tails." Dally says and Two-bit sticks his tong out at me.

"Ha Ha!" Two-bit says but I wack him over the head.

"You haven't won yet buddy." I tell him.

"Pony, call it." Dally says as he tossed it.

"Heads." He says.

"Heads." Dally says and he puts his nickle up. "Guess we're having Dairy Queen."

"Yay!" Tess cheered with a huge grin on her face.

We walked on to the diner and ordered. Sitting at the booth with our food, we listened to Two-bit ramble on and on about his latest thief. Pretty soon we were all laughing, even Tess even though I doubt she knew what we were talking about.

"Y'all must love disturbing the peace." We looked over to see the Shepards coming our way. I glanced at Dally. God, if he started our earlier arguement here and now with Shepard, I'd kill him.

They pulled some chairs over to sit by us. "What peace? There ain't been any peace in this town since the day you were born." Dally tells him.

Tim smirks. "You wern't even born before I was so how would you know? One things for sure, it was a lot more peaceful before you moved here."

I looked over at Dallas. "You're not from here?"

He shook his head and took a drink of his coke. "No, I used to move a lot when I lived with my mom. The last place I lived before here was in Brooklyn, New York but I got in too much trouble so they moved me here with the old man."

"Cool." I say as I finished up my fries.

"So you're dating Dally?" Angela asks me.

"Yeah." I say with a smile.

"I thought you wern't eating pie anymore?" Angela says which must be her code for I thought I was sworn off of guys.

"Sometimes you just have to listen to your stomach and not your head, no matter how many calories it might have." I tell her meaning sometimes listening to your heart is better than your head.

Angela smiled. "But what if you get fat?" Meaning, what if I get hurt.

"Well, if it happens then I will never eat it again and have to work it off." I tell her. If Dally hurts me, well I just won't go back to him.

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Curly asks and I looked over to see all the guys looking at me confused.

"Why are you talking about pie Mommy?" Tess asks me. "Are we having pie later?"

I laughed. "No it's just a conversation Angela and me were having baby." I tell her.

"First you were talking about me and then you start talking about pie?" Dally says confused. "Is that code for something?"

"Yeah, we're saying your a pig and eat way too much." Angel says to him and I rolled my eyes.

"Richards." I looked over to see who called my name. These were the only people I knew that knew me so who could it be? Once I layed eyes on the tall brunette, I gasped and ran over to her. She hugged me tightly and we both started laughing.

"Aunt Elaine!" Tess yells before running over to her.

Elaine picks her up and kisses her cheeks. "Golly doll, I missed you."

"I missed you too." Tess says as I lead the two over to the gang.

"Guys this is an old friend of mine Elaine." I say and then introduce everyone. Angela was the only one who knew the whole story between us and I hoped that wouldn't change.

"Hey." She says and then sits down.

"So what's the story?" I asked her, my smile gone. It was time to be serious now.

She sighs as she shakes her head. "Cody's getting out in five days."

I cursed deeply. "Wasn't he suppose to be in longer?!"

"Yeah but some buddies of his have been saving up to pay his bail. Girl, you gotta get ready as soon as possible." She tells me.

"That bad?" I ask her even though I already knew it was.

"I've known the Sharks along time and I've never seen them get like this over one girl. I've been snooping around and found out that he's sending three forths of the gang looking for you with him and I know they've all got guns. Girl you need to get disguised fast." She tells me.

I could hear everyone around me cursing. "Does he know I'm here? He could have followed you."

She shook her head. "I went all the way up to Ohio then turned and went through Kansas and came into Oklahoma. I lost those guys when I went into Tennessee."

I cursed under my breath. "What's to do?"

She sighed. "Change your hair color and Tess's."

"What?" I jumped up. "I love my blonde hair! Besides, wouldn't it mess Tess's up if I dyed hers?"

"It might and it might not but anyone could recognize you like you are now!" Elaine told me. "They know your real name, huh?"

I looked down a little. "I wasn't thinking when I met them, OK!"

She rolled her eyes. "This is serious Stacy! Not only yours but Tess's life is on the line here!"

"OK, OK I get it!" I tell her. "What do you want me to do?"

"Change your whole look." She says. "Your hair, you clothes, your name, and hell, even your attitude."

"What am I going to do about Tess?" I asked her.

"Just change her hair and tell her if she sees anyone from Florida to tell you and act like she doesn't know them. You don't have much time left kid so I'd hurry up." Elaine says. "I have to get going."

I got up with her and hugged her. "I really appreciate this Elaine."

"Just stay safe kid. I hope I don't see you again because we both know what terms it'll be on if I do." She says as she hugs me tight.

"Bye!" Tess says as she huggs her.

"Bye Sweetpee! Make sure that Mommy does what I say." Elaines says before walking out the Dairy Queen. I can here her motorcycle speed off into the distance and can't help but feel sad.

I felt arms incircle me from behind and leaned against the strong chest, knowing good and well it was Dally. He kissed me on my forehead and I sighed, looking down at my ever so charished blonde hair. My hair was the best thing about me in my eyes. I charished this mop on my head ever since I was a little girl and now I was forced to dye it a different color. _I am not dying this red, no matter what. _

"Why does it have to be my hair?" I asked softly.

I could feel Dally chuckle before I could hear it. "It'll grow back blonde."

I frowned. "I'd rather cut it then dye it!"

"It's only hair kid." He told me and I glared up at him.

"Is not." I argued.

"Everytime I go to the cooler, I have to cut my hair." He told me.

"Well that's different." I say as I swayed back a forth, making Dally as well.

"How so?" He asks with his stupid smirk. If there was one thing I could change about Dally, it would be his stupid smirk that seemed to haunt me. It was that I'm-so-hot-and-such-a-smart-jackass-that-I-don't-care-if-you're-right-'cause-through-my-eyes-you'll-never-be. It made me want to strangle him and the sad part is I think he knows it because he seems to do it more and more each day.

"All you had to do was simply cut your hair, I have to _dye _my ever so beloved blonde hair!" I told him with my best sad look.

"It ain't so bad." Dally rolls his eyes.

"Yeah right." Pony mutters.

"You dyed your hair before?" I glanced over at Ponyboy.

"I had to cut and bleach it." He says.

"And wasn't it horrible?" I asked him and he nodded.

"It took a half a year for it to grow back out my color." He says and I shriek.

Dally rolls his eyes. "It'll be fine."

I gave him a look. "It took him six months to grow out his hair! Imagion mine since it's a little passed my shoulders!"

"You'll be fine kid." Tim says as he shakes his head.

"Yeah whatever." I say to him. Call me a drama queen all you want but it still won't change the way I feel about my hair. It was the only thing that was true. I would wake up and it's the same color and I can go to sleep knowing it won't turn an ugly orange over night. The only thing that could never lie to me or at least at my age. I know one day it'll start to turn gray but that's beiside the point!

"I'll help you dye it." Angela says. "We could dye it black?"

"Are you crazy?" Dally asked her. "She may be tan but black on her would look about as good as blonde on you."

Angela glared at him. "Fine. How about brown?"

"Fine but it's going to be light brown." I say with my arms crossed.

"What about your clothes?" Two-bit asks.

"How am I suppose to dress differently? The opposite of how I dress is rich and you can clearly see that that isn't me." I say looking down at my cut off shorts and cheap shirt.

"Then the other opposite would be shorter clothes." Tim says.

I gave him a look that clearly stated my oppinion on that. "Are you fuckin' crazy Shepard?! The odds of me dressing in mini skirts and sleezy tanktops are negative a hundred in a million!"

Dally grinned down at me. "Which is why you need to dress like that. Cody won't think that you'd be dress like that."

I gave him a look. "Shut up, I know you're just agreeing so you can see me in hardly nothing."

He gave me a mocking hurt look. "Why would I do such a thing? Besides I've already seen you in barely nothing."

I hit him in the arm while Two-bit started laughing, blushing a little...or a lot. "Shut it up."

He just laughed and brung me closer. I turned in his arms so I could bary my face in his chest. It would soon be all over. I'd be dead soon in Cody's hands and would never be in these safe arms again. Tears were forming in my eyes. I'd be leaving Tess and Dallas behind along with the rest of the gang. I shouldn't have got close to anyone. I should have kept to myself this way it wouldn't be so hard.

"You OK?" Dally whispered in my ear.

I nodded my head, unable to speak without the fear of the tears falling. I will not cry here. Not here in public.

"Let's go get started on your new look." Angela says and I will myself to let go of Dally.

* * *

"I don't think it looks that bad." Angela says as I looked into the mirror. My once so beautiful blonde hair was now a light brown and was curly insted of staight. God did I hate it. I was wishing this was some kind of dream but everytime I pinched myself, I was sadly forced to face the undening fact that this was as real as it got.

I was wearing some of Angela clothes and I hated that almost as much as my hair. My skirt barely covered my ass and my top felt so tight, I thought for sure it was going to rip off. All we did to Tess was dye her hair the same color as mine. There wasn't much you could do to a toddler.

"Let's go show the guys." Angela says with a smile. We walked on out but I stayed in the shadows of the hall.

"Come on Stacy, it can't look that bad." Dally says but I don't budge.

"Whatever! I look like a tramp! Wait, I take it back, I look _worse _than a tramp! I look like one of those dumb little whores you'd find in one of those Playboy magazines!" I yell at them. "I wish I would have never met that jackass! It's all his fault I have to dress and look like this!"

"You look fine Stacy." Angela says. "Hey wait, should I be offened since you're wearing my clothes?"

"My hair looks even worse then my clothes!" I yelled, ignoring her. "It looks like some socs hair! Grrrr I hate it!"

"Well come out so we can see what it looks like." Tim says but I still don't move.

I was about to turn around and go back to Angela's room when strong arms picked me up by my waist. I knew who they belonged to and tried harder to get away, not wanting anyone to see what I looked like.

"Put me down Dallas Winston!" I yelled as I tried to get away but he simple carried me into the living room, dropping me back on my feet once we were in the middle of the room.

Everyone just looked at me shocked. I really didn't feel like myself, let alone looked like the old me.

"Wow ah Stacy." Two-bit says as he just stares at me. "You uh don't that bad."

I glared at him. "No need to lie Two-bit, I know I look like shit!"

"You sure don't look like you." Tim says and I glare at him.

"Thanks for the reminder!" I turned to walk back into Angela's room once again but collided with a chest that was none other than Dally's. He wrapped his arms around me and I did the same to him. Man did I ever need a hug right now.

"I like the way you look." He whispered in my ear.

I glared at him. "That's 'cause you love any whore."

His grip tightened. "No, you don't look like a whore. You look like one of those girls in those movies about nice girls turning bad."

I didn't want to but I laughed. "Why must you always make me laugh?"

He smirked. "Most girls want that in a guy."

I smiled. "Well sometimes I just want to be angry and sad and I don't feel like laughing."

"Oh well Dollface." He says with that ever so hated smirk.

I brake down crying right then and there. I might have only been here a few days, but I've grown attatched to the guys and were going to miss them like crazy. I was going to miss Dally's laugh and his warmth and even that stupid smirk of his!

"Hey, hey it's OK." Dally says as he rubs my back. "What's wrong baby?"

"He'll be on his way soon." I managed to get out.

"He won't get to you." Dally says as his grip tightens on me.

"I shouldn't have got attached to any of you. It would have been a lot easier to say goodbye to one person insted of ten." I sob out.

"We ain't going to let anyone get to you kid." I herd Shepard say. "Not as long as I'm still breathing."

"He'll kill you if you get in the way." I tell them. "Y'all herd Elaine! They're carrying heaters and I refuse to let any one of y'all die because of me!"

"Just calm down Stacy." Dally says and I soon feel myself being pulled down. Dally had sat down on the couch and had pulled me in his lap, pulling my legs to the side so my head rest against his right shoulder and chest.

I clinged on to him and thanked God Tess was asleep in Angie's room. I would hate for her to see me like this. A thought soon popped in my head and I only cried harder. "Tess won't even remember me if they let her live. She's too young to be able to recall anyone."

"Shush." Dally says as he rocks me lightly. "Everything's going to be OK."

I cried my heart out until I was soon drifted off into sleep.

AN: TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. BTW - SOMETHINGS UP WITH MY STORY ALART THING. I LOOK TO SEE WHAT STORIES I HAVEN'T READ ARE UPDATED OR WHAT NEW STORIES HAVE BEEN POSTED AND SEE THAT SOME STORIES THAT ARE ON MY STORY ALART HAVE BEEN UPDATED BUT I NEVER GOT THE EMAIL. I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT'S UP WITH IT AND IT'S BEEN LIKE THAT FOR 3 DAYS NOW. COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S UP OR HOW TO FIX IT?


	11. Visiting Donny

AN: THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE AWESOME REVIEWS!! I REALLY DIDN'T THINK THAT MANY PPL WOULD LIKE THIS STORY BUT SO FAR I HAVEN'T GOT ONE BAD REVIEW (KNOCK ON WOOD)!

_STACY'S POV_

I walked through the cemetery and wrapped my arms around myself, the cold chilly wind seemed to blow even harder in the early hours of the day. I had left the Shepards, where Tess and I had stayed the night, around six thirty and it took me half an hour to find this place. I had left Tess with the guys, hoping I'd be back before anyone woke up. After a few minutes of searching, I finally found him.

I fell to my knees before his headstone, tracing the letters of his name with my index finger. _'Donny Jacob Richards. 1947 - 1964' _(It took me ten minutes to try and figure out the date, i am good in english but math i am about as good as a first grader, lol. if it's wrong i'm sorry but i got too frustrated to work with it any more.)

Tears started to fall from my eyes as I reread his name. "Hey Donny, it's Stacy. I'd ask how ya doin' but I guess it would be pretty pointless since you can't answer back." I looked away for a minute, brushing my tears off my cheeks.

_"Donny! Donny!" I came running into his room, a huge smile on my five year old face. _

_The eight year old looked up from his book. "What kid?"_

_I jumped on his bed. "I lost my tooth!" _

_"What?" He asks as he sits up. I smiled to show that I had indeed lost one of my front teeth. He grinned. "Wow Shorty, what do ya know, ya did. Where's it at?"_

_"I don't know?" I say. "I think Daddy must have knocked it out when he hit me in my face last night." _

_He smiles sadly for a minute. "Well oh well. We need to celebrate!" _

_"How are we going to?" I asked him. "We can't have a party or nothin' 'cause Momma and Daddy would ring our necks!" _

_He thought for a moment before smiling. "I got an idea! When Momma yells for us to go to bed, we can sneak out of our windows and go to the beach."_

_I gave him a look. "Why? We always go to the beach."_

_He smiled. "Don't worry about nothin' Babygirl, I'll take care of everything."_

_It was later that day and when Momma hollared for us to leave to our rooms, I did what Donny told me to do insted of changing into my pajamas. He was alreadys waiting for me and together, we walked the five minute walk to the ocean. _

_"Close your eyes." He told me and I gave him a confused look._

_"Why?" I asked him as we neared the beach._

_"Just do it." He says so I do what I'm told. I feel him put his hands over my eyes, knowing that I would cheat. We walked a little more before I grew impatient._

_"Can I open them now?" I asked him._

_"Nope, not yet." He says as he leads me onward._

_"Now?" I asked him._

_"Yep!" He says as he uncovers my eyes and I open them. I look around to see all our friends smiling at me. I looked back at Donny who was grinning._

_I hugged him tightly. "This is great!"_

_He laughed. "You haven't seen the best part yet." _

_He led me over to a small table and I saw a chocolate cake in a box. My eyes widen as well as my grin. "Wow!"_

_He laughs. "I stole it from the baker. I know that unlike other kids parents, ours wouldn't be hiding money under your pillow case so I had to do something special for my favorite kid sister."_

_I hugged him tightly once more. "I love you Donny! You have to be the best big brother in the whole world!"_

_He squeezed me tightly against his chest. "I love ya too kiddo." _

More tears fell as I thought back to that time long ago. "What I wouldn't give to hug you again." I say as the cold wind started to pick up it's speed.

"I used to plan out ways to kill myself so I could be with you." I tell him as I held my shoulders, trying to protect them from the cold wind as the sun was slowly rising in the background. "I would argue with myself on how to kill myself, rather use a knife or gun or hang myself or jump infront of a car. I know you don't want to hear this, that is if you can."

Tears flew out my eyes like a waterfall but I held back the sob that wanted to be released. "Cody's coming soon. I know he'll kill me, I know it but I don't want to die now! I don't want to leave Tess or the gang. You know Tess reminds me a lot of you with her crazy imagination. I tell her stories about you when I think I can without crying.

"I met the Shepards too." I say with a smile. "There really great. I can see why you chose to live with them. Angela's just a pretty as you discribed, It's really funny to watch Curly and Tim fight, and Tim can be cold sometimes but I can tell he cares about those two. I don't know if you'd approve of Dallas. Wait, scratch the thought. I _know_ you'd never approve of Dally. He's really sweet sometimes but like I'd ever tell him. I just wish that he'd put a little more trust in this relationship. God, I hope he doesn't turn out like Cody."

I whipped at me eyes. "Who am I kidding? I'm about to die soon and I got myself in a relationship? What was I thinking! Him and Shepard swear they're going to protect me but I don't think they can. Cody Hinderson always wins in the end no matter what. I think you might have liked Dally if you looked deep down in him."

_"Hey girl." I looked over to see Chad Howell standing by the vidio game I was playing in the small arcade. _

_I smiled. I've known Chad for years but we never really hung out too much. He was middle class and I was nothing but a hood to most, even if I was a girl who barely hurt a fly. "Hey Chad." _

_He placed his arm around me and before I knew what was happening, he had his lips on mine. Just as soon as it started it ended. Donny had been watching near by and had grabbed the guy by this shirt and threatened him with in an inch of his life. _

_"Donny!" I yelled at him on our way home. "What was that about?"_

_He gave me a look. "I don't want that pansy having his filthy lips on my kid sister."_

_"I'm not a kid!" I tell him stubbornly. "I'm almost a teenager!"_

_He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You're twelve darling, still a kid and will forever be a kid in my eyes."_

_I glared at him. "Well maybe someone needs to cut them out and give you a new pair."_

_He laughs and I couldn't help but smile. I hated that I could never stay mad at him._

"I don't know what you'd do if you were alive today." I say as I stared down at the tome. "You'd probably murder Dally."

"I know he would." I looked over to see Curly Shepard walking towards me. "He would make Dallas die a cold and horrible death in the slowest way possible."

I laughed a little. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged his shoulders and I figured that was about as much of an answer as I was going to get from him.

"I can't believe it's been three years." I tell him. "I keep thinking he's going to call me soon to check up on me."

Curly somewhat smiled a little. "I know what you mean. I keep thinking when I walk into the living room in the morning that he'll be greeting me with a headlock."

I smiled. "He always told me that he loved wrestling with you the most."

Curly chuckled. "Yeah 'cause he always won."

I laughed as I whipped at my tears, not really wanting to cry anymore. "I just wish sometimes things could have happened differently."

"A bunch of people do." He says as he coutinued to stare at the grave, as if looking for some sort of answer.

"You saw him die, didn't you?" I say as I watched his exspression.

He looked over at me with a blank look in his eyes. "Yeah, I wasn't that far away when I saw the soc pull out a knife. It was suppose to be a clean fight but those dirty son of a bitches cheated! I hollared for him to look out but I wasn't fast enough."

I smiled sadly at him. "It wasn't your fault. Everything happens for a reason, they say."

He just shook his head. "Who ever said that?"

"Donny used to tell me that when we were growing up. He always said all the hell we over go is planned in order to test our strength and faith in the Lord." I tell him.

Curly gave me a small smile. "So you always had to listen to that too?"

I laughed. "Yeah, he was the one who got me going to church."

Curly shook his head as he looked up at the almost fully rised sun. "He forced me to go one Sunday. He made me and Angela and Tim go because I made a remark about how I didn't believe that God could ever exist."

I laughed. "Tim Shepard went to church? This I cannot picture."

He laughed. "Trust me it was a sight to see. Nobody knows we went though. Donny told them we had important business to settle for the morning and early afternoon and it's not like anyone we knew went to church. He made them go once and forced me to go until I swore to him I'd believe in God and never doubt his power or love."

I smiled at him. "Have you kept that promise?"

He smiled at me and shook his head. "I stopped after Donny died but then I had this dream that Donny was about to beat me with a bible if I didn't stop doubting everything important. I started reading it again but if you tell anyone about that, Tim and Angela included, I'll kill ya before that guy can."

I laughed. "Your secret is safe with me buddy."

"It's so strange to think it's already been three years." Curly says. "It seems like the other day we were laughing at Angela's attempt to cook spaghetti."

I smiled. "I know what you mean. It feels like years but then at the same time it seems like last week we had our last conversation."

"My mom's boyfriend murdered her five years ago and then hung himself but that didn't even come close to how bad I felt when Donny died and I wasn't even related to him." Curly says as he sighs.

"Probably 'cause y'all were all so close." I tell him. "How are y'all able to live with each other? I highly doubt the court would give custody of a cat let alone you and Angel over to Tim."

Curly laughs 'cause it's probably the truth. "Our aunt lives not too far away. They think we live with her now but Tim made an agreement with her that he'd take care of us and since she never gave a hang about us in the first place, she gladly agreed to this."

_CURLY'S POV_

Stacy's smile is almost the exact same as Donny's. That and her gray eyes. I don't know what I would be like if I was in her shoes. I probably wouldn't be able to hold myself together with having to deal with everything but like I'd ever admit that. I mean, I'm Curly Shepard, brother of Tim Shepard. I have to be tough and saying that I'd be weaker than some chick would not only ruin my reputation but make me the laughing stock of the gang.

"The only thing I couldn't stand about Donny was the fact that I could never stay mad at him." Stacy says as the chilly wind blows once more.

I smirked. "I would have been able to stay mad at him but he never let me. He would annoy the hell out of me till he had me laughing again and by then I had forgot what I was so mad about in the first place."

She laughed. "It's so hard to think that he was such a great guy yet such a horrible person to some. I mean, if they actually knew him then they would never think he was a hood."

I agree. "Yeah except for his habbits of shop lifting but hey, don't well all do that?"

She laughed. "That's one of the first things he taught me when I was a kid."

"The biggest thing him and Tim taught me was how to take a guy three times my size since everyone thinks that I have a problem running my mouth to the wrong people. Sorry but I ain't going to let nobody talk shit about me without me talking shit about them next." I tell her.

She smiled. "I guess that would be pretty useful."

I glanced down at the headstone. Donny Richards was like another older brother to me, rather that be a good thing or not, and God had it been so different without him. He was always joking about something or another even if it did get him in a lot of trouble when he told it to the persons face. Of course he usually could take them, I mean nobody wants to mess with a big guy like him. Hell, he gave Darry Curtis a run for his money in a rumble we had with their gang.

_"I'm home!" I yelled as I kicked off my shoes, hearing Tim yell at me for the millionth time about that that week. Laughter was coming from the kitchen and I walked in to get a beer. The beer was soon yanked out of my hands though and I turned to see Donny grinning down at me._

_"Hey!" I tell him as I tried to grab it but he just held it up so I couldn't reach it. _

_"Hey buddy, how ya doin?" He asks. "Now why would you want to drink this?"_

_I rolled my eyes. "Oh I don't know maybe because I think it's good?"_

_"Well we see what happens when you actually do start to thinking." He teases making Tim and Angela laugh._

_I glared at him. "Don't try to be funny."_

_He laughed as he ruffled my hair, an easy way of annoying me. "You know, alcohol isn't good for kids." _

_"I ain't a fuckin' kid." I tell him._

_"Niether is cursing." He says. "And yes, you are a kid."_

_I glared at him. "I'm thirteen!"_

_He grinned. "Yeah and the second youngest kid in a gang around these parts."_

_I rolled my eyes. Donny never got enough of making jokes about that. "So what, Tim never cared if I drank."_

_"That's because Tim didn't want to hear you whine while I love to hear all your crazy excuses about why this is unfair." Donny laughs. "You and Angela both."_

_"That's 'cause you have no life." I tell him but was soon placed in a headlock._

_"What was that little boy?" He asks me as I tried to get away._

_"Going deaf in your ripe old age?" I ask him, clearly saying the wrong thing. His grip tightens on me as I try to pry his arm away with no avail. _

_Finally having enough, I give in yelling uncle._

_Donny smirked. "Nope I changed the password."_

_I glared up at him, knowing I'd definitly wouldn't like whatever it was. "What?" I managed to choke out._

_"It's now Donny you are so great, how will thou ever live up to you?" His smile was wider than before._

_I glared up at him. "Asshole." _

_His grip tightens. "What was that little man?"_

_I finally give in but not happily._

"It was always hard to get him mad, at least for me." Stacy says, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I nodded. "Yeah. I used to try and see if I could just for fun."

She laughed. "Did it work?"

I smirked. "Not really."

"We better go before everyone wakes up." Stacy says and we both get up.

I gave Donny's grave one last look before walking away with Stacy soon following. The wind started to pick up and I can't help but wonder why it's so cold out here. It doesn't get windy like this till around November.

AN: SHORT, I KNOW BUT I PUT ALL I WANTED OR NEEDED TO IN THIS CHAPTER. PLZ REVIEW!!


	12. GRRR

AN: HEY GUYS I'M SAD TO SAY THAT MY COMPUTER HAS A VIRUS! ;( WE'RE TRYING TO GET RID OF IT BUT IT'S MAKING IT VERY HARD TO DO MUCH OF ANYTHING LET ALONE UPDATE WITH THE DUMB THING ON THERE. HOPEFULLY IT WON'T TAKE TOO LONG THOUGH. I ALREADY HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER ALMOST DONE BUT FOR RIGHT NOW I'M JUST TRYING TO SEE IF IT'LL AT LEAST LET ME POST THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE.

I'M SORRY GUYS BUT HOPEFULLY IT'LL BE GONE VERY VERY SOON! I WOULD DIE WITHOUT INTERNET AND I GOT A FEELING IT'S GONNA BE A LONG FEW DAYS OR WEEKS. ;(

I CAN CHECK MY EMAILS SO I MIGHT BE ABLE TO REVIEW ON Y'ALLS CHAPTERS BUT IT'S NOT REALLY LETTING ME POST STUFF 'CAUSE IT KEEPS REMINDING ME THAT I HAVE A VIRUS LIKE I'M STUPID AND FORGOT. GRRR THIS THING IS MAKING ME VERY ANGRY!

THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP ASAP I SWEAR!

THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND IF YOU DON'T I DON'T BLAME YOU CUZ I'D BE PRETTY MAD TOO!

YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AND THANKS FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL REVIEWS!! ILYA!

ALISHA AKA SISTERCAT144


	13. Bowling Ally

AN: OK I STILL HAVE THAT DUMB VIRUS BUT I'M GONNA TRY AND POST THIS! THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

_DALLY'S POV_

As soon as I opened my eyes from my night's rest I was greeted with gray eyes looking up at me. Stacy was laying next to me fully dressed and appearently had been watching me sleep.

"You know a picture would last longer." I tell her as a grin tried to form on my lips but I held it back.

"But I'd be too tempted to burn it." She says with a teasing smile and I gave her one of my glares. I don't know why this girl doesn't take me seriously. I glare, her smile widens. I yell, she yells back. Most people wouldn't have the guts to do that. Maybe that's why I like her so much.

I grabbed her and pulled her in my lap, sitting up now. "I should make you pay for that one."

She grinned. "Oh and how so?"

"How about this." I then capture her up in a rough kiss but pulled away not even half way through it. She leaned forward to try and kiss me again but I leaned back with a smirk on my face. She opened her eyes and a glare soon formed on her face.

"You're a bastard." She says and I laugh.

"Well duh." I tell her as Shepard walks in.

"About time your up." He greets me.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut it. What are we going to do today?"

Stacy looks down sadly. Tim and I both share a glance before looking back down at the young teen.

"What's up kid?" I asked her.

She sighs. "Do we have to go out today?"

I gave her a questioning look. "I guess not. Why don't you want to go?"

"Are you kidding me? Look! I look like a whore with horrible brown hair! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!" She says upsetly.

Tim and I roll our eyes. "It's just for a little while baby, just until this thing with Cody and you passes over."

She gave me a look. "You guys just don't get it. Cody isn't going to give up and there ain't nothing you two can do to stop him. If you stand in his way he'll kill you too and I refuse to let that happen."

"Stop thinking all negative. We'll going to get you out of this rather our lives on the line or not and don't think you can change my mind." I told her and ment it. Any other girl it would have been different but there was something really special about Stacy.

She sighs. "Fine whatever."

"Hey y'all we're going bowling, want to come?" Angela asks as she walks inside.

"Sure." Tim says and then looks at that the two of us. I glanced down at Stacy who sighs but nods her head. We rode with Shepard to the run down bowling ally where we met up with the rest of the gang. Even Darry, who rarely ever goes anywhere with us anymore, was there.

"Let's play people!" Two-bit yells as we all get our balls and shoes.

"You can play on Mommy and Dally's lane." Stacy tells Tess and the young girl smiles.

"OK." She says happly and nods her head, her now brown hair swinging in the high ponytail Stacy put it in.

"Ready to lose?" I asked Stacy with a smirk.

She glared at me. "Tess and me are gonna kick you butt so bad that you won't want to leave the house for a week."

I laughed. "Sure baby, I'm sure that's how it's gonna end."

"Just wait Winston." She says. It was Stacy, Tess and me on #6, the Curtis' on #7, Tim, Steve, and Angela on #8, and Curly, Two-bit, and Johnny on #9.

Stacy was first on our frame and picked up her ball which happened to be the lightest here.

"Is that all you can pick up?" I asked her with a smirk.

She glared at me. "No, I just got it for Tess and figured we could share it."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure."

She glared at me but went up and I nearly fell out of my seat laughing at the way she threw the ball. She had bent over and rolled it with both hands granny style. She turned around and glared at me once the ball was slowly making it's way down to the pins.

"Shut up Winston! This is the only way I can do it." She says and then turns around when we hear the crashing of pins. She got all but four and her luck was good because they were all by each other. When her ball finally came back she threw it the same way again but this time it went in the gutter.

"You're really showing me now huh girl?" I say as I mark her points.

She glared at me. "I'm just getting warmed up is all."

I smirked. "I'm sure. You're up Tess."

Tess grabbed the very light ball that Stacy was using and went up with Stacy right behind her. Stacy helped her hold the ball and roll it just like she had. If I said it went slowly down the lane then I'd be almost lying. It went _very _slowly down the lane and I thought for sure I'd be eighty by the time it hit anything. OK maybe that was an exaggeration but whatever. It only hit the two side pins on the left side but still Tess cheered.

I got up when she went for her second shot. "Here let me show you how to do it since you Mommy is pretty bad at this."

Stacy gave me a look. "I am not bad at this."

I rolled my eyes and went with Tess up to the line you stand behind. I got on my knees so I was closer to her level and put her thumb, pointy finger, and middle finger in the holes and had her hold it upward.

"OK all you gotta do is throw it underhand as fast as you can but don't forget to take your fingers out." I tell her and she smiles up at me and nods. God did she ever look like her mother.

I held her arm and slowly brought back the ball. With both mine and Tess's strength, the ball went down the lane in a lot faster speed then her first shot and this time only three pins were left standing.

"Yay!" She squeals and hugs my neck. I froze, not sure what to do. I never liked little kids and only girls her mother age hugged me. As strange as it felt, I wrapped my arms around the girl and hugged her back and then picked her up, carrying her back to the table where Stacy was watching with a huge grin on her face. God do I hope that none of the gang was paying attention to us.

"Did you see that Mommy?" Tess asks excitedly as I place her down in her momma's lap.

"I did, you were great!" Stacy tells her and kisses her cheek.

"Dally helped me!" She grins as she looks at me.

Stacy smiles at me. "I saw that. Did he do a better job then Mommy?"

Tess nods. "Yeah."

I marked Tess's points and went to pick up my ball. "Stacy, watch and learn."

Stacy just shook her head with that same ole grin. "Alright master."

I threw the ball as hard as I could and I hit all but one stubborn pin.

"Yay Dally!" Tess cheered and Stacy laughs.

"OK master, lets see you hit that one." Stacy tells me.

I gave her a small grin. "Watch."

I threw the ball down the lane once more but it turned at the last moment and missed the pin.

"Better luck next time." Stacy tells me.

"Hey, I'm winning arn't I?" I tell her as I marked my points. "And your daughter's right behind me."

She laughed. "Only because you helped her."

I smirked. "Do you want me to help you too?"

She glared at me in a playful way. "Shut up Dally. I can hit my pins all by myself."

"Alright." I tell her. "Don't say I never offered."

"Look out!" We looked over to where Soda was yelling. The manager, who had been walking by, hurried and moved out the way as Soda's ball went sailing by him. How the hell Soda managed to throw the ball the opposite direction on accident I will never know.

Soda hurried and grabbed the ball while the manager bitched on and it's a wonder that he didn't throw him out.

"How do you do that Sodapop?" Stacy asks him with a laugh.

Soda grins. "I'm very talented, what can I say?"

"And you say I'm clumsy." Pony says to Darry.

"I guess you arn't the only then." Darry tells him. "Hell, Soda's really starting to make you look good."

"Maybe you should hang out with us more often." Pony tells him while Soda ruffles his hair.

"OK smarty, your turn." He tells him.

Our game went on for awhile until it was finally over. The gang had bought another round but Stacy, Tess, and me were tired of playing so we figured we'd watch the others. I had won our game followed by Tess and then Stacy. I had 133 points, Tess had 106 with my help, and Stacy had 82.

"How's the game coming Shepard?" I asked as we sat down by his and Two-bit's lanes.

"I'm winning of course." He says as he lights a cigarette.

"I won." I tell him.

"Hey, I would have won if you didn't cheat those last five rounds." Stacy says as she places Tess in her lap.

I rolled my eyes. "How did I cheat?"

She rolled her eyes. "You kept distracting me."

I smirked. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Stacy gave me a look and impersonated my voice. "Hey Stacy, watch out! Stacy, What's this Tess has? Stacy, don't fall!"

I smirked and held back a chuckle. "I don't sound like that."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you don't."

Tim chuckled. "Maybe I should be on y'all lane next time. More interesting then playing with these two."

"What's so bad about Steve and Angela?" Stacy asks him.

Tim rolled his eyes. "Steve is a soar loser and Angela is more worried about messing up her nails then hitting the pins."

We glance over to our right when we heard holloring. Two-bit is doing the most retard dance ever and is shouting about how good he is.

"Are you OK?" Stacy asks him unsure.

"I won!" Two-bit says as he comes running over to us.

"Yay!" Tess claps as Two-bit picked her up and threw her in the air, sending the child into a fit of giggles.

Curly came over to us along with Johnny. "Are we buying another game?"

"Sure, I don't mind kicking y'alls butts again!" Two-bit says as he walks away with Tess to the front desk.

Curly sat down next to his brother. "God do I hate playing with that idiot."

Tim chuckled. "Is it because you can't beat him?"

Curly glares at Tim. "Johnny and me would have long beat him but he cheats worse than anyone I know."

"Ain't that the truth." Johnny says quietly.

"So does Dally." Stacy says and I rolled my eyes.

"Like you were gonna win anyway." I tell her.

She crossed her arms. "I might have."

"Your daughter was a head of you." I tell her making everyone laugh.

"That's only because you helped her Dallas!" She says but she's smiling.

"Hey, I offered to help you out but you said you would win your way." I say with a smirk.

"Shut up Dally." She says as Two-bit and Tess come back.

"Ready to lose again?" Two-bit asks the two boys.

Curly rolled his eyes. "Aw man, you mean you gotta cheat again?"

Two-bit laughed and ruffled the teens hair, earning a deadly glare from him. "I don't have to cheat to beat ya."

"Prove it." Curly says as he fixs his hair back, still glaring at Two-bit. With that, the three boys head over to their lane.

"Y'all want something to eat?" I asked Stacy as Tim got up for his turn.

"Sure." Stacy says as she looks down at her daughter.

Tess grins. "Yeah!"

We get up and head over to the food court and Stacy finds a table for us while Tess and I go over and order. I picked Tess up so she could see what they had while we waited in line. I was getting the cheeseburger combo and Stacy wanted the chicken sandwich combo.

"What ya want kid?" I asked her as I told her the choices.

"Burger!" She says with a grin.

"What kind of burger?" I ask her. "Cheese burger or hamburger?"

She thought for a minute. "Hamburger!"

"Alright." I tell her.

"Dally?" I looked behind me to see Sylvia walking over to me.

_Oh God._

"Where have you been lately? I haven't seen you at Buck's." Sylvia asks and then looks at Tess. "Who's the brat?"

"My girlfriend's kid." I tell her as I glared at her. "Why don't you just get gone."

She gave me a look. "You're dating some whore with a kid? Wow what happened to you?"

I glared at her. "She ain't no whore unlike you."

She smirked. "Oh really?"

"Why don't you go find you someone else to annoy?" I asked her as we moved up in line.

"Dally, what's your deal? Since when do you go for some chick who's anything but a whore?" Sylvia asks me as she places her hands on my shoulder that Tess wasn't leaning against. "I doubt you even like this broad."

I pulled away from her. "I sure like this broad a hell of a lot better than you. Now that I think about it, I like any broad better than you." I've been cheated on by her one too many times and since three weeks ago, I made a promise to myself not to go back out with the broad. All I see in her is a good fuck and everytime I started thinking it might be more, she goes and runs around on me.

"So what? Do you like playing Daddy or something?" Sylvia asks bitterly. "Is that while you're after her?"

"You know I hate kids Sylvia." I tell her. "This one ain't that bad though."

"Whatever Winston." She glares at me. "I've told you I was sorry about what happened between me and Wade, why can't you just get over it?"

I glared at her. "Why must you always think everything is about you? I'm way over that and way over you girl. Why don't you find ole Wade and go fuck in the parking lot."

She glared at me. "Whatever, don't think this is over." She says and then walks away.

"Who was that?" Tess asks as she looks after Sylvia a little fearfully.

"Nobody you need to know about." I tell her as we finally come to the front of the line. I placed the order and soon enough it was done and I carried it back to the table Stacy was sitting at.

"Hey." She says and I drop Tess in the chair next to her mom's.

"Hey." I say as I hand them their food and grab mine.

"Is something wrong?" Stacy asks as she glances at me. "You look mad."

"It's nothing." I tell her as I take a huge bite out of my burger.

"Who was that girl you were talking to?" Stacy asks me as she took a sip of her coke.

"Some stupid broad." I tell her.

"And that's all she is?" She asks as she glanced at me.

I sighed irritated. "Yes now shut up about her."

Stacy gave me an angry look. "What's your problem Dallas? All I asked was who she was and you jump all over me."

"Well maybe it's none of your business who she is!" I tell her.

She glared at me and made a move to get up but I grabbed her wrist.

"Don't go." I tell her._ Dear Lord, what is wrong with me? I can not be following for this girl._

"Why shouldn't I Dally?" She snaps at me. "I don't feel like putting up with you when you're in one of these moods."

"Look, I didn't mean it OK?" I tell her.

"Then what's going on?" She asks me as she sits back down.

"The broad is my exgirlfriend." I tell her.

"What did she want?" She asks and I could see the hint of worry in her eyes.

"To irritate me." I tell her. "She thinks that I'm just going to go running back into her arms after she slept with about every damn guy in this city while we were dating."

"What did you tell her?" She asks softly.

"I told her I was seeing someone else and to fuck off 'cause I was never going back to her." I say as I ate a french fry.

"OK." Stacy says calmly and I could tell she was worried.

"Stacy, I ment it. I'm happy with you not her. Don't worry." I tell her and pull her out of her chair and into my lap.

She hugs me tightly. "Alright, I believe you."

I kiss her forehead because I figured she'd kill me if I kissed her lips with Tess watching. "Good."

AN: NOT AS LONG AS I WOULD LIKE IT TO BE BUT OH WELL. PLZ REVIEW, THEY REALLY KEEP ME GOING AND I'M SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT!


	14. Dally Cheats and Night At the Shepards!

AN: THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! I WAS LOOKING AT SOME OF THEM AND THEN REALIZED I HAD 100 REVIEWS!! I'VE NEVER HAD A STORY HAVE THAT MANY REVIEWS IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME (OVER A MONTH)! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE YOU ALL!!

_STACY'S POV_

It was just me and Dally at the house tonight. Two-bit and Tess begged me to let them stay together at his house tonight and after promising that he'd call before she went to sleep, which had to be the correct bed time, and call me in the morning I caved in. This was the first night I was away from my daughter and Lord did I miss her even though I knew Two-bit would take good care of her.

"Relax baby." Dally told me as he pulled me into his lap on the couch, wrapping his muscular arms around my little body.

I snuggled closer to him. "It just feels werid."

"What you need is a distraction." Dally says with one of his wicked grins.

I smiled back. "Like what?"

"Let's see." He then started kissing my neck. "Does this work?"

I giggled. "I don't know. It's not doing the trick."

I herd him chuckle. "How about this?" He then pulled my shirt down a little so he could kiss the back of my shoulder.

Lord did that feel good. "You're getting closer."

Dally smirked and undid the buttons of my shirt before turning me around in his arms so he cradled me. He then started kissing my chest. "How's this?"

I moaned. "Stacy likes."

"So does Dally." It coutinued like this for awhile until he sooned surprised me by picking me up and walking down the hall.

I laughed. "Where is Dally taking Stacy?"

He grinned. "It's a surprise."

He soon kicked open my bedroom door and threw me on the bed, making me laugh. Not long after though, he was on top of me and his tong was searching my mouth.

"Don't keep biting Stacy's lip." I some how manage to get out.

"Why not?" He asks.

"Because they'll swell up and then Stacy will have to say the bug returned." I tell him as I started biting at his neck.

"You know Dally's sad." He says as he attacks my neck as well.

"Why is Stacy's Dally sad?" I asked him, holding back a moan.

"Because Dally knows this is all that we are going to do." Dally says as he pulls away and looks me in the eyes. "Right?"

I thought about it for a moment. "I can't take the chance of getting pregnant again Dallas."

"I could use a condom." He says with the same look in his eyes he had the other night when he was trying to convince me to let him sleep with Tess and me.

I rolled my eyes. "They don't always work."

"We could take a chance. I'm a risky kind of guy." Dally says and I can't help but laugh.

"I don't know." I say as I thought about it.

"Come on baby." Dally tried again. "Tess isn't home and you're almost half way nude and I could strip in less then a minute."

I laughed. "You just don't give up, do you?

He laughed. "Of course not. I don't give up on anything."

"But trying to follow the law." I say and he rolled his eyes.

"That's because I never tried." He says. "So can we?"

I sighed. "You know I really don't think I'm ready?"

"What better time then now to do it since your baby ain't home? Besides, I could help you get ready." He says as he did the wave with his eye brows, making me laugh.

"God, you're starting to act like Two-bit." I laughed out.

He gave me a look. "Yeah just tell your boyfriend he looks like a dumb big kid who couldn't stop making wise cracks to save his life. Thanks baby."

I laughed. "Oh I'm so sorry Dallas."

He kissed my cheek. "I know how you can make it up to me."

I rolled my eyes. "I do to."

He grinned at me. "And how is that?"

I gave him my innocent look. "Stacy could..."

He grinned. "Stacy could?"

I smiled. "Stacy could..."

He smiled again. "Stacy could?"

I grinned. "Stacy could not kick Dallas in the groan."

He gave me an irritated look. "Dally thinks Stacy is a big tease."

I rolled my eyes. "And Stacy thinks Dally is just lust filled guy who only wants one thing from me or any girl."

"That's not true Stacy and you know it." He says. "I was just asking if we could."

I rolled my eyes. "You were begging."

He glared at me. "Whatever! I don't beg."

I glared at him. "Sure, whatever helps you sleep at night Dallas."

He got up from on top of me. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What's my problem? Oh I don't know maybe you're being a jackass." I tell him as I sit up and glared at him. To think I was gonna give in to him.

"Yeah and you're being a bitch." He says with that heated look in his eyes.

"Get out!" I yelled as I pointed to the door.

He glared at me.

"You herd me, get the hell out of my house if you're gonna be like this!" I yelled at him and he did as I ordered.

Only once I herd the front door slam shut did I allow myself to cry. I should have known he'd be like this. What do I see in the bastard? To think, I had the stupidity to say the other night I made the right choice saying yes to the sorry ass of an excuse for a human.

I took his ring off the chain of Donny's necklace and threw it against my door angerly before getting up to take a shower.

_DALLY'S POV_

I stormed out the house, not sure of where to go. I didn't feel like going to the Curtis' and Shepard would probably suspect something if I crashed at his house and I really didn't feel like having him bash my head in for getting in a fight with Stacy. I headed to my only other choice, Buck's. By the time I got there, the party was in full swing and the horrible country shit was blaring.

"Give me a beer." I tell Buck as I sat down.

"Well if it isn't Dally Winston. Haven't seen you in awhile, I figured you done got thrown in the cooler again." Buck says as he gave me my drink.

"Nahh, just been busy." I tell him.

"Hey Dally." I silently cursed when I herd her voice.

"What the fuck do you want Sylvia? I already had the misfortune of seeing you today." I told her as I glared at the tramp.

"What's with the attitude Winston?" She asks me in her cold voice.

"I don't have a habit of talking real politely to tramps, sorry." I told her sarcastically.

She glared at me before sitting in my lap. "You're so funny Dally."

I glared at her and went to push her away but her lips soon came roughly to mine and before I knew what was happening we were making out. As much as I want to stop her, I just couldn't. It felt good to kiss her again even though it shouldn't. She was soon pulled off of me and I look around in rage to see who stopped it. Just my fuckin' luck. Shepard is standing right infront of me with a look to kill.

"What the fuck do you think your doing Winston?" He asks me and before I can answer, he slams me against the wall.

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked Tim as his fist made contact with my jaw.

"You really think I'm about to let you get away with cheating on Stacy?" He says as the croud of people were now looking at us, waiting to see what happened next.

"Why the hell do you fuckin' care what I do?" I say I spit out blood before punching him dead in the face.

He grabbed me by the arm and twisted it behind my back before braking my nose. "I don't care what hell you fuckin' do as long as it doesn't have anything to do with Donny's kid sister."

The drunks seem to be taken back by that and were now really into what the hell was going on. I managed to get out of Shepard's grip and knocked him on the ground. "Our love life ain't none of your business. She ain't here and she don't have to know about this."

Shepard sent me a death glare. "You don't honestly believe that I won't run off and tell the poor kid this?

"If you don't I will." We all looked over to see Angela walking over to us. "The girl was foolish to trust scum like you. I knew I should have talked her out of it."

I glared at her. "I didn't cheat on her."

Angela slapped me in my face and I swear if her brother wasn't right here I'm sure I would have done something I probably would have regretted. "You lying little bastard! What do you call kissing another girl?"

I swore under my breath as I sent her a death glare. "She doesn't have to know about this. Besides, she was pissed already when I left."

"What the fuck did you do?" Tim asked me in his dangerous voice.

"Like I said earlier, our love life ain't none of you fuckin' business Shepard." I tell him.

"You're damn wrong you son of bitch! She's Donny's little sister and that means she's like mine and I swear to God if you hurt her -" Tim went on but I cut him off.

"Shut the fuck up Shepard." I yelled at him but he pushed me against the wall again only this time a picture fell on my head.

"What did you do?" Angela asks me as I swore under my breath and got the damn glass off of me.

"It ain't none of your business either." I barked at her.

"Well maybe I should pay her a little visit and get the details." Angela threatened.

"See if I care bitch." I yelled at her but couldn't help but feel dread at that. This was going to ruin everything I had with that girl and I knew she wasn't going to take me back. Fuckin' Sylvia!

_STACY'S POV_

"What?" I asked as I got the phone call from Angela. I had just got out the shower and done bawling about the jackass when the phone rang.

"I'm sorry honey." Angela says as I started to shake. Not from sadness or anything. No, from rage. "Are you OK?"

I started swearing. "To think I trusted that sorry son of a bitch! He's a fuckin' bastard and I should have known better!"

"What did y'all fight about?" Angela asks me.

"He wanted to fuckin' screw!" I tell her. "I was starting to cave in when he starts to act like a total jackass and then I told him to get the fuck out of my house. Forget the sorry ass."

"If it makes you feel any better Tim got him at Buck's." She offers.

That did make me smile a little. "Yeah that does help a little."

"It's going to be OK girl." She says. "You want to stay with me tonight?"

"I don't know." I tell her.

"Come on! We could talk trash about everyone and order pizza and eat ice cream all night!" She says and I could hear the smile on her face.

I smiled. "OK."

"We're about to leave now. I'll just have Tim swing by there and pick ya up." Angela says before we say bye.

I packed a bag of clothes so I could change in the morning and brung my toothbrush and makeup. Believe it or not, I never really did anything like this. I never really had friends to do this with. Elaine was always busy and my friends before I got pregnant had this solution to get high or stoned to forget it.

Pretty soon I herd a car horn and after locking the door, I walked out to the black car. "Hey." I say as I climbed in the back with Angela.

She smiled and hugged me. "I'm so sorry about all this."

I just shrug it off. "It's my fault. I should have never trusted that jackass. You think I would have learned my lesson with Cody."

"It'll be OK." She says as Tim turns up Elvis on the radio.

"I'll drop y'all two off at home first and then I'm taking Janet home." Tim says and then I noticed the dark haired tramp sitting in the front seat.

"That's fine." I say as we spead off towards his house.

"Are you coming home tonight?" Angela asks her brother.

"Not if I can help it." The tramp mutters.

"Hey bitch I ain't talkin' to you!" Angela snaps at her.

Janet glares at her but shut's up.

"Yeah probably." Tim says. "If not I'm sure Curly'll be there."

"Well that makes me feel better." Angela says sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"You two better cool it with each other." Tim tells her as he looks at her through the rear view mirror. "I'm sick of hearing all the fuckin' fighting."

"Well you probably want be home to hear it." Angela barks back.

"Angela." Tim warned.

"Well he fuckin' tries to own me! He always fuckin' asks me where I'm going everytime I open the front door!" Angela complains.

"That's because I treatened to kick his ass if he let you run off and go fuck some random guy." Tim says as we pulled up to the house.

Angela rolled her eyes. "I told you I wouldn't anymore. Gee, talk about the trust here."

"Just get out you two." Tim says. "I'll be home, I promise."

"Alright. Let's go Stacy." We then get out of the car and start to walk to the door.

"Hey Stacy." I looked back at Tim.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You OK?" He actually looks worried.

"Peachy." I tell him before heading in with Angel. Like Tim had said, Curly was indeed home and was making Ramon noodles when we walked in the house.

"Hey." We called to him as I threw my stuff down on the couch.

"Hey." He greats back. "I herd about Winston. I'm sorry Stacy."

I smiled back. "It's OK."

"You already herd?" Angel asks him. "Man, word travels fast if it already got to Linkin's party."

"Well you know what they say, if you see one roach there's always a hundred more. Same with rumors." Curly says but then stops. "But that sorta doesn't really fit in with what you said."

Angela rolled her eyes. "You're so retarded Curly."

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up Angel."

"Don't do that!" She snaps at him as he drank out of the pot insted of getting a bowl to put it in or at least using a spoon.

Curly rolled his eyes as he turned the stove off. "I'm sorry _mother!"_

Angel rolled her eyes. "That's nasty Curly. Make sure when whoever turn it is to do the dishes washes that good."

"Such a drama queen." Curly says as he sits on the couch next to me. "Where's the kid?"

"She staying the night at Two-bit's." I tell him. "God do I miss her."

"I think I'd be jumping up and down if I had a kid and finally got a night off." Curly says as Angela phones for a pizza.

I laughed. "No you wouldn't. You'd miss them like crazy."

He just shook his head. "Hopefully I won't ever have to worry about that."

"You don't want kids?" I asked him.

He snorted. "Nope. All they do is whine and want shit."

"Yeah and we sure wouldn't want another Curly running around." Angela says with a smile on her face.

Curly glared at her and picked up one of the couch pillows and threw it at her, hitting her in the head. Of course Angel had to get back at him so she threw it back at him but that was pointless since he threw it right back. A smile came to her lips and even though I've only known her for a few days I knew that ment trouble. She opened the fridge and took out a can of Coolwhip and started spraying him.

"Watch it!" I yelled as she got some on me.

"That's it!" Curly says as he gets up, covered in white cream and goes to the freezer.

_ANGELA'S POV_

"What?"I ask as I hang the phone up after I'm done ordering. Once my back was turned, I felt something very cold run down the back of my shirt. I screamed as I turned to see Curly smirking evily with the vanilla ice cream in his arms. I ran to the freezer and got the chocolate as we started throwing the cold cream at one another. I soon felt Coolwhip hit me and turned to see Stacy had the can.

"You honstly exspect me to just watch while y'all have all the fun?" Stacy says as she got Curly. We were all throwing it at one another for what seemed like an hour when the pizza guy finally got here. I opened the door, covered in icecream and Coolwhip and payed the guy as I grabbed the two pizza's.

"Alright time-out!" I yelled as I set the boxes down on the table. "Let's eat!"

We all sat on the floor in the kitchen to eat since we knew Tim would murder us if we got this shit on the couch since it would leave a stain. You would think he wouldn't care, huh? I'm lucky I didn't get any on the couch when I was spraying Curly with whip cream.

"We got to get this cleaned up before Tim comes home." Curly says as we looked at the kitchen. It was covered in our mess and there was no doubt in my mind that we were gonna be dead soon. "Maybe he won't come home tonight."

"No he will. I sorta pitched a fit in the car because he said he might not." I say with regret. Hopefully he would take his time.

"Great going." Curly says as he rolls his eyes.

"Shut it." I snapped at him.

"Let's worry later and enjoy ourselves now." Stacy says as she took a huge bite out of her hamburger pizza. "This has been so much fun. Thanks for inviting me over."

I smiled. "No problem honey."

"It sure get's my mind off of Dallas." She says with a sad smile.

"You see, you can have fun without him." I tell her. "You know he's gonna be sorry in the morning."

She rolled her eyes. "Well he can be sorry all he wants but I ain't never taking him back."

I smiled. "Good."

"I'm going to wash up." Curly says as he takes his socks off to walk into the livingroom.

"Your brother isn't that bad." Stacy says one we herd the shower running.

I rolled my eyes. "Sometimes he is."

She smiled. "Every brother's bad sometime."

I couldn't help but smile. "I guess you're right."

Not long after, Curly came out and Stacy was about to go wash up when we herd a car pull up outside. We all looked at each other and had the same dreaded look on our faces.

"Curly go outside and distract Tim since you're clean while Angel and me clean up!" Stacy ordered him as we got to work fast.

_CURLY'S POV_

I went outside to see Tim getting out of his car and walking up the drive. "Hey Tim!"

"Hey." He greets back. "What are you doing out here?"

Think! "Oh I'm uh...just taking a look at the stars."

Tim raised a brow. "Have you been smokin' that shit again?"

"No, not at all big brother. I learned my lesson last time." I tell him thinking about all the painful bruises he left me when he caught Ricky James and me smokin' grass.

"What are you up to?" Tim asked me as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Nothing! I'm just admiring God's work on the solar system." I tell him praying Angel and Stacy would hurry the hell up.

"Curly." Tim says and I knew he was getting mad.

"Yes?" I asked him calmly.

"Did you let Angela out?" His voice was dangerous and it made me even more afraid of him.

"No, of course not." I tell him. "Stacy's over."

He looked me in the eyes, an easy way of knowing if I was lying or not. "Then what's the deal?"

"What do ya mean Tim?" I asked him, playing dumb.

He looked me over once more before trying to go around me and into the house. I back up against the door.

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

"Inside." He says as he gives me a glare.

"Why would you want to go in there? I mean, it's not that impressive looking." They better hurry the fuck up!

"Niether are you now move." Tim tells me.

I fake a hurt look. "Now that's just rude."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Get over it."

"You lower my self esteeme." I tell him making him roll his eyes once more.

"Someone needs to." He says as he tries to push me out of the way but I held on to the door nob with my right hand.

"Have you prayed today Tim?" I asked him, thinking of no other excuse.

He gave me a bewilder look. "Curly, what the fuck?"

"You know Donny always wanted us to pray everyday!" I tell him as I herd something fall.

"What's going on in there?" Tim asked as he too herd the noise.

"Don't try to change the subject!" I tell him. "You really should pray."

Tim gave me an annoyed look before grabbing the front of my shirt and pulling me behind him and walking on it. I ran in too and ducked under his arm to get infront of him, trapping him to the front door.

"You know I never noticed how tall you are Timothy." I say loudly so Stacy and Angela could hear.

Tim gave me another annoyed look. "Yeah well you want to see how strong I am too?" He threatened. "What the fuck is your problem kid?"

"Nothing, nothing at all!" I tell him as Stacy and Angela come out wearing trashbags over their clothes.

"What the hell?" Tim asks them as we also took in the baseball caps they had on to cover their messy hair.

"Hey Tim!" They said before running down the hall.

"Yeah well bye Tim!" I yelled as I soon joined them. I could hear Tim muttering how he was cursed with the strangest siblings in the world when I caught up with the two.

"What the fuck took so long?" I asked them as they took the bags off.

"Hey it was a big mess!" Angela yells at him. "Which you didn't have to clean up!"

"Well next time we can switch jobs because stalling Tim is harder than it looks!" I tell her as Stacy went into the bathroom.

"Curly! Angela! Get in here!" We herd Tim yell and we both shared a terror look.

"Did you get everything?" I asked her as she stripped and put her robe on. "Angela I don't want to see that!"

She rolled her eyes. "You should have turned away." She says as she puts the hood to her robe on to cover her hair. "Come on."

We slowly walked into the kitchen where Tim was leaning against the doorframe glaring at us. The kitchen looked clean so what could be the problem.

"What did y'all do?" Tim asked us as he sent us his death glare.

"Nothing." Angela says as she avoided his gaze.

"Oh really?" He asks as I sit on the couch.

"Why do you ask?" I asked him, looking anywhere but in his eyes. That was always a trick to get us to confess.

"Well for one the kitchen is spot less." Tim says as he looks us over.

"I thought it'd be nice to clean up." Angela says. "I have a friend over and I don't want it to look like a bunch of bums live here."

"She's already seen the house Angela." Tim says. "What did you two do?"

"Nothing!" We say at the same time.

"Then look me in the eyes." Tim says and niether Angela or I made a move to do so. "I knew it."

"The important thing is that it's clean now." I tell him. "Look at the time, I better be going to bed now."

"Me too!" Angela says as we made a move to get up.

"Don't move!" Tim barked at us. "You're not going anywhere intil I know what y'all did."

"What's it matter?" Angela asks him. "It's not like anyone's hurt or anything's broke."

"You two didn't fight at all?" Tim raises a brow.

"No." We say which was probably the truth. All we did was play fight basically.

Tim just gave us a look and Angela rolled her eyes as she gets up and sits in my lap, squeezing the life out of me.

"I did not fight with my dear brother. I thought about what you said earlier and we came to the agreement to stop all the none sence, right bro?" She asks as I hug her back.

"Of course baby sister." I say and knew right away this only made Tim even more suspecious.

"Hey." Stacy says as she comes back in fully dressed with some of Angel's pajamas on and her hair wet.

Tim gave her a look over. "Why are you wearing Angel's clothes?"

She just smiled back at him. "Because she told me her's were probably more comfortable then mine. You were right girl, these are warm."

Angela smiled and went along with it. "I told you."

"Do you like the kitchen?" Stacy asks. "We thought it'd be nice to walk home to the kitchen being clean."

"Yeah." Tim says as he looks her over. "Whatever you three did, don't let it happen again and don't let me find out." He then walks to him room.

We smiled at each other in victory.

"We won!" Stacy says with a grin.

"Yep." Angela says.

"No get off of me." I tell her as I push her off. "Gee, were you trying to choke me to death?"

She smiled. "Something like that."

* * *

_STACY'S POV_

It was around four when I woke up from one of my flashbacks. Insted of getting up out of Angel's warm comfy bed, I just lay there thinking about Dally. It's not even been a day yet and I miss the idiot like crazy.

_You shouldn't have done this Stacy. You should have known it would end like this. I bet it was that tramp he saw at the bowling ally. _

_"Stacy, I ment it. I'm happy with you not her. Don't worry."_ _Should have known not to believe that bullshit. I can't believe I trusted t__hat jerk! I was so stupid! _

Try as I may, I couldn't stop the tears that rolled down my face. God, why did I fall in love with him? Why couldn't I keep Tess and me to myself? I shiver as the cold breeze that I assumed came from Angel's airvent blew on my face. If only I could just fly away like the wind.

AN: I HAD TO SNEAK ON THIS MORNING TO WRITE THIS. I'M SICK, FOR SOME FORSAKEN REASON, AND AM SUPPOSE TO BE IN BED BUT THAT'S A FAT CHANCE OF THAT HAPPENING. MY PARENTS ARE AT WORK AND THE ONLY ONE HOME IS MY OLDER BROTHER AND HE'S ASLEEP SO HE CAN'T DO SQUAT ABOUT IT, LIKE I'D LISTEN TO HIM ANYWAY. I'LL TRY TO SNEAK BACK ON TO READ OTHER'S STORIES AND UPDATE AGAIN BUT IDK IF I'LL BE ABLE TO. PLZ REVIEW! Y'ALL ARE REALLY GOOD AT THAT! ;)


	15. Why Did I Have To Fall In Love With You?

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

_STACY'S POV_

"Mommy!" I got on my knees and caught her in a hug at her level on Two-bit's front lawn. Glory did I miss this kid.

"Tess! Oh my gosh did I miss you!" I tell her as I stood up and spun around, making the two year old laugh.

"I missed you too." She hugged my neck. "I had fun Mommy!"

I smiled. "I'm sure you did." I then turned to look over at Two-bit. "Thanks for watching her."

He grinned. "It was no problem. Just thought it was a good way to let you and Dal be alone."

I shook my head sadly. "Well let's just say we didn't stay that way long."

Two-bit looked confused. "What do ya mean?"

I sighed. "To make a long story short, we got in a fight and he ran off to some place called Buck's and Tim caught him making out with his exgirlfriend. I stayed the night over there with Angela."

Two-bit's jaw was tight and I could tell he was pissed. "That little son of a bitch!"

"Look, don't go doing something stupid Two-bit." I tell him. "Tim got him last night and besides, he's your friend and I don't want to be the cause of you two fighting."

Two-bit looked ready to argue but I put my hand up. "Not another word."

After a few minutes Two-bit finally sighed. "Alright. Well, what are you two doing today?"

"Yeah Mommy." Tess spoke up.

"Well I really need to fix that hunk of junk in the yard." I said as I thought back to the piece of shit I've been driving.

"Tess and me can play while you do that." Two-bit offered.

"You watched her all last night. I am not about to make you sit with her today too." I tell him. "She can help me out and you can go out and enjoy yourself."

Two-bit grinned. "OK but I'm coming by for lunch."

I laughed. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

We left Two-bit's and I fixed Tess some breakfist before I gave her a bath and put her in some gray sweatpants and a red turtle neck. I was suppose to start my job the other day but luckly they called and told me they didn't need me till tomorrow. Work will be good. Anything to distract myself from Dallas is good. Like fixing my car for example. I wouldn't be fixing it because it's not like it's gonna come to much use to me anymore. Once Cody finds me, I won't have much use for anything.

"Wear yours too Mommy." Tess says as she grabs my matching gray sweatpants except mine has two blue lines that ran down the sides.

I smiled at her. "Sure sweetie." I then grabbed my pink sweater and even though I didn't want to, I forced myself into wearing my tennie shoes.

"We're gonna fix the car?" Tess asks me as I got the tool box out of the trunk of the car.

"Yep." I tell her. "Are you gonna help Mommy?"

"Sure." She smiled. "Two-bit says only guys can fix cars."

I rolled my eyes. "Two-bit's full of it. I bet he says only guys can fix a TV."

Tess giggled. "I don't know about that. You fix the TV all the time."

I smiled. "Exactly. Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do something because of you gender, height, or where you come from baby. It's not true. You can do anything no matter who you are."

She smiled. "OK Mommy."

"Now it's time to work." I tell her as I popped the hood and started looking at the motor. Both Tess and I were outside for about two hours before we were interupted by two wondering idiots.

"Look it what we have here Sodapop." Steve says. "Two little gals are trying to fix a car."

"I can see that." Soda says and we looked up to see them grinning like a cat.

"Well it's nice to see you two blubbering idiots too." I tell them making Tess laugh.

"What are you laughing at cutie?" Soda asks her as he picks her up and starts to tickle her.

"Do you know what you're doing Stacy?" Steve asks me as he looks at my work.

"Yes Stevie-boy, I do." I tell him as I rolled up my sleves even though the cool wind is blowing. "You two arn't the only ones in this town that can fix a car."

"Yeah well I never knew a girl who actually knew how to do more than fill up." Soda says as he places Tess down.

"Well now you know me." I tell him as pulled Steve's bandana off his head and tied the red cloth to my head. "My brother taught me how to steal them, fix them, and crash them...though the last one was an accident."

They laughed. "I believe that alright." Steve says. "Donny was always commenting on everything I did when he came down to the DX. He'd make me so mad I'd tell him to fix his own damn car if he knew all this bullshit."

I laughed. "I take it he loved to irritate you."

Steve grunted in responce. "It was more like torture."

I smiled. "I would have loved to see that."

Soda gave me a sad look over. "Stacy, we uh, herd about Dally."

I smiled sadly then turned back to my car. "Yeah well I shouldn't have exspected so much of him."

"Stacy." Soda starts but I cut him off.

"Save it Curtis. I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it. If anything, this is my fault. I let him in knowing damn well this was most likely going to happen." I say as I picked up my wrench and went back under the hood.

"He was a jackass Richards." Steve says and I could feel his eyes on my back. "That's all there is to him."

"I know this Randle." I say as I felt Tess pull on my pants leg. "What sweetie?"

"I'm thirsty." She says and I sighed.

"Y'all want anything?" I asked the two guys after putting Tess on my hip.

"Sure." Soda says but Steve shakes his head. Soda follows behind me as I went inside and grabbed Tess's sippy cup.

"Are you OK?" Soda asks me as I handed him a cup.

"Fine." I tell him as I filled Tess's cup up with milk. It was only ten thirty but she had gotton up around seven so I'm sure she's tired. I grabbed her pink blanket and layed her on the couch and put the cartoon station on.

"Mommy!" She yells but I simply placed a pillow by her so she could snuggle up to it and wrapped her blanket around her.

"Why don't you take a quick nap baby? Two-bit'll be here when you wake up." I tell her, praying she wouldn't fuss. I must have been praying on the same star I was when I prayed Dally ment what he said the night at the bowling ally because Tess threw herself in my lap, refusing to go to sleep. I sighed and picked her up, rocking her from side to side as I covered half her face with her blanket.

"Shush, shush, shush." I tell her as she sobbed in my shirt. Times like this I really hate being a mother. "Everything's gonna be OK."

_SODAPOP POV_

I watched Stacy rock the sobbing child to sleep with only one thought it my mind. She's too young to have all these worries. She's my age for crying out loud! She shouldn't have to worry twenty four seven about a two year old or about some crazy, jealous ass trying to kill her and her kid. She shouldn't have to deal with Dally being a total bastard to her on top of all that.

"Mommy!" Tess yelled as she tried to get out of Stacy's arms.

"Shush baby." Stacy tells her. "Shush."

After a few more minutes of fighting, the tired toddler is out like a light. Stacy sighed and carefully placed Tess back on the couch and then turns and gives me a small smile.

"Now that she's down, I can get back to work." Stacy says but I wrapped her in a hug before she could take a step towards the door. After a minute or so she returned the hug and wrapped her arms around me, her hands clinging onto my shoulders as I felt my shirt slowly getting wet.

I rubbed her back and whispered comfronting words in her ear as she cried into my chest. After a few minutes she finally stopped and lifted her head up to look at me, her eyeliner running a little and her nose a little red.

"I'm sorry." She aplogized as she whipped at her eyes.

I embrassed her once more. "Don't be."

She sighed and I knew she was smiling. "You are a real sweetheart Sodapop Curtis, you know that?"

I laughed. "And you are a real doll Stacy Richards."

We both laughed. "Well we better get outside before Steve has to much fun with my car."

With that said, we both walked outside to see Steve under the hood with some tools in his hand. Stacy smiled at me evily and pressed her finger to her lips, indicating to be quiet as we silently walked up to him. Once Stacy was only two feet away from him she was grinning like a cat.

"Steven Randle what do you think you're doing!?" She yelled as loud as she could.

Steve jumped, hitting his head hard on the hood and then fell on his ass while Stacy and I cracked up. He just got up and glared at the two of us but like we cared.

Stacy smiled. "I'm sorry but I couldn't resist. I shouldn't have yelled so loud. God only hopes that I didn't wake Tess up."

Steve glared at her but I could tell he wasn't really mad. "I hope you did."

We laughed and Stacy decided to let us help her out. It was around an hour or so later when the drunk idiot decided to show up.

"Hey y'all!" Two-bit greets.

"Hey!" We called back as the fool makes his way up to us. It was when he was a few feet away from me that I noticed he was sporting a black eye.

"What happened to you?" I asked him as I shook my head with a grin. "Tuff bruise ya got there."

Stacy looks up and I could see anger flaring in her eyes. "Who gave that to you Mathews?"

"Now Stacy." Two-bit starts but she hits the car.

"I knew it!" She yells at him. "What did I say earlier Two-bit?! I told you not to get involved in this because I didn't want to be the cause of this but what do you do? You run out and find the guy."

"What's going on?" Steve asks as we looked between the two.

"Who'd you fight Mathews?" Stacy asked him coldly.

"Stacy calm down." Two-bit starts but she cuts him off.

"Calm down? Calm down? Two-bit, I am so sick of people doing the opposite of what they say they're going to do. You promised me you wouldn't." Stacy glared at him.

"I didn't promise I wouldn't." Two-bit says. Stacy was about to cut him off again but he cut her off. "Stacy you're my friend and I'm not going to stand for anybody hurting you. Dally may be my pal and all but that doesn't mean I'm about to back down when he screws over another one my buddies."

She sighs and looks him over. "You look horrible."

He grins at her. "Thanks sugar."

She looked away but she couldn't cover up her grin. "Shut it."

Two-bit grins and hugs her. "We cool?"

She sighs and hugs him back. "Yeah."

"So you got in a fight with Dal?" I asked him. Not many people willing take ole Dally on, especially when they know his fighting style. It's pretty surprising Two-bit would fight the guy.

Steve grins at me. "I know you're a drop out Soda but come on. I know you can't be that slow."

We were soon caught up in a wrestling match.

_STACY'S POV_

Two-bit and I went on in the house while Steve and Soda rolled around in the dirt. Tess was still fast asleep and I hushed Two-bit up, not really wanting to deal with a cranky two year old any time soon. We grabbed a coke and then went back outside, this time out the back door insted.

"So?" Two-bit asks as we sit on the porch, still able to hear the idiots in the front.

"So..." I say with a sigh.

"Are you OK?" He asks me with that concern look Soda gave me earlier.

I wasn't about to start bawlin' again. I didn't want to. It kills me to know that I let the guy get to me this much. I shouldn't have got close. I should have kept to myself and never made the biggest mistake and said yes to the fool. But ya can't change the past.

"I'll be fine." I tell him even though I didn't really believe it myself but I knew I had to. For Tess's sake at least.

"You don't have to be tough infront of me you know." Two-bit says as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

I smiled and leaned against his shoulder as I took in the view. There were car parts in one nieghbors yard and weeds and shit in the other. I hadn't had time to mess my yard up too bad though it did need to be cut badly. Another nieghbor's yard had a stolen hotdog stand in it which really confused me.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I asked him with a smile.

He laughed. "Only the best for you."

I laughed. "Ain't that the truth."

We sat awhile in a comfortable silence. I kept thinking back to Dally.

When we first met...

_I rolled my eyes and looked at him angerly. "Get out of my face."_

_His cold eyes looked me over and his smirk seemed to grow when he saw my chest. "What if I don't."_

_I smirked coldly at him. I've had to deal with his kind before, hell Tess's father was a regular hood too. "I guess you don't fancy life then."_

_He didn't seem fazed by that. "You must be new around here because surely you wouldn't be talkin' to the Dallas Winston like this."_

Or how about how great it felt waking up next to him for the the first time? I could have went without the facing my fears at the park though...

_"Don't look down stupid, go!" Dal told me but his eyes softened when they met mine. "Come on, what is so scary about this?"_

_"I fell off a slide like this when I was little and if my brother wouldn't have caught me, I could have been seriously hurt! I don't want to fall again." I tell him as I realize how close we were to the top. All we had was five steps left._

_"I ain't gonna let you fall, don't worry." Dally told me._

What about how he saved me from those socs or how he held me after I had a flashback?

_My eyes start to droop as Dal coutinued to draw circles in my back. "Why don't you want to go to sleep?" He asked but it seemed like he was slowly drifting away._

_"Don't want to dream." I told him as I slowly started to give in to the darkness._

_"It won't come back." Dally told me softly. "It was only a dream. Odds are it's long gone."_

_"I wish it was only a dream." I say as I gave into the comfortable darkness that slowly was easing my tiredness._

I think that was the night I fell in love with him. It was either then or when he confessed his feelings about me...

_"What do you want from me? What is it you think you can get from me?" I asked him and he pulls away slightly so he can look in my eyes._

_ "I honestly don't know. It feels good to have you by me." He tells me._

_I searched his eyes to see if he was being truthful. "What do you mean?"_

_"I mean." He tell me. "I want to be with you Stacy. Call me fuckin' crazy for waiting so long to finally say it but it's the truth."_

Or how about our make out seccion at the park? That was pretty good but no where near as good as it felt to see him helping Tess bowl. He was starting to warm up to her or at least I thought so. I guess that was all just a show so maybe I'd let him in my pants.

It was then that I broke down. Two-bit held me while I cried in his chest.

"Why did I have to fall in love with that bastard?" I asked Two-bit.

* * *

_DALLY'S POV_

I was laying in my room at Buck's place, staring at the ceiling. I was sporting a few bruises and a cracked rib from Shepard and from Two-bit from our little 'talk' earlier and really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. I couldn't believe what I did. I fucked up the best thing that had ever happened to me and there was no way to get it back. All because of some stupid tramp! Why didn't I push her away? Why the hell wasn't I fuckin' thinking? I glared at the poor condition of the roof. I had to be so fuckin' stupid!

Why the hell couldn't I get her laughter out of my head? All I could see was her smile or those pretty gray eyes or hear her soft voice. What the hell is wrong with me?

God was she cute when she was mad...

_She looked at all of us kind of mad before sighing. "It was nice of you guys to do that but next time just wake me up."_

_She tried to get up but I still wouldn't let her. She glared at me but I just grinned back. "Let me up Dallas."_

_"Say please." I tell her and she growls irritatedly._

_"Dallas Winston, let me go now!" She yells at me and I simply chuckle._

She was such a small thing too. Didn't weigh nearly anything...

_"Dallas put me down!" She yelled as she tried kicking me but all she kicked was the air. I made it so she slipped down farther, making her scream. "I take it back, I take it back! Now put me down!"_

_I just smirked. "I didn't quite hear that."_

_She glared at me but her frown looked like a smile from my view. "Dallas Winston, if you want to live to see another day you'll put me down right now."_

_I just smirked at her. "What was that? You want to go back to the park and slide?"_

_She shrieked again and I made her slip some more. "Dally!"_

Or how about how I felt when the socs got a hold of her?

_"Help! Help! Somebody! Help!" A female voice called and I knew it was Stacy._

_I ran as fast as I could towards the voice to see five socs on her. The one on her moved back some and I couldn't quite tell what he was doing until I got closer. It was then I saw the knife in his hands and the blood coming from Stacy's stomach. I pulled the guy off of her and started beating the shit out of him. How dare that richass son of a bitch touch her! The G'damn little fucker! I threw him against his car and Darry had to pull me off the guy as I grabbed my blade out of my back pocket._

_"Come on Dallas! You got him now stop before you kill him!" Darry told me as he dragged me away as the socs drove on._

_"Damn bastards!" I cursed as I followed Darry over to where Stacy was. Soda and Steve were looking her over._

Glory did I love kissing her though...

_"What you need is a distraction." I says with one of my wicked grins._

_She smiled back. "Like what?"_

_"Let's see." I then started kissing her neck. "Does this work?"_

_She giggled. "I don't know. It's not doing the trick."_

_I chuckle. "How about this?" I then pulled her shirt down a little so I could kiss the back of her shoulder._

_"You're getting closer." She says._

_I smirked and undid the buttons of her shirt before turning her around in my arms so I cradled her. I then started kissing her chest. "How's this?"_

_She moaned. "Stacy likes."_

_"So does Dally." It coutinued like this for awhile until I sooned surprised her by picking her up and walking down the hall._

Why the hell did I have to fall in love with the girl? Why the hell did I have to go to Buck's? I should have went to the Curtis'. She'd be back in my arms and I'd be able to hear her laughter ring in my ears if I would have. I'm so stupid!

I have to get her back. Somehow, some way or another, I'll get Stacy Richards back even if it kills me. Dear God, why did I, Dally Winston, have to fall in love? I always thought it was never possible but she's the living proof.

AN: PLZ REVIEW! )


	16. The End Is All Too Soon Near

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

_STACY'S POV_

I walked into the smokey house with Two-bit right behind me. The whole way here he had been trying to get me to calm down and not to come here but like I'd listen to him. Once I make my mind up there ain't no going back and these were one of those times. The place was a little crouded but I was informed that you can barely go anywhere at night without bumping into someone. Sitting in the back was a bunch of tough lookin' hoods with Tim Shepard in the middle of the mix.

"Stacy, what are you doing here?" He asks once he noticed me.

I just scanned the place, searching for the jackass. I knew he'd be here. Something told me he would. "Later Shepard."

"Stacy." He called once again but I walked off after noticing a white haired guy walking towards the bar. Picking up my pace, I hurried over to see a big guy pooring him a drink and even though I couldn't see his face, I knew it was Dallas.

"What the hell do you wan-" He started after I tapped him on the shoulder but shut up once he saw it was me. "Stacy look I -"

He never finished because I slapped him in the face. "I don't want your sorry excuse for what you did so just shut your mouth while I speak." I then threw his damn ring at his face.

His eyes showed anger but also sadness for one second before going cold and emotionless again. "So speak."

I glared at him and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him off the stool he was sitting on. "You're a fuckin' pig, a total jackass, and a dumb bastard. Just because I don't give in to you you go and run off to some little tramp? You're a real man Dallas Winston." Sarcasm dripping on the last thing.

He got up and was sending me one of his death glares as nearly everyone had their eyes on us now. "You better be lucky you're a girl or else you'd seriously regret that." He says but I knew deep down he'd never lay a hand on me.

I reached my fist up and jabbed him in the stomach, making him double over. "Don't you ever talk to me like that Winston! I ain't you're little hoe now get that threw your head. I'm nothing to you now or ever."

"So when are we goin' to celebrate that?" A voice asked and I turned to see the tramp from the bowling ally coming over to me.

"I take it you're the easy bitch?" I say with my dangerous smirk.

She smiled. "I rather be easy then just a tease."

"Like I care what you rather be." I tell her before punching her in the face. Of course she wasn't about to let anyone get away with anyone hitting her so she swung back, striking my cheek. Pretty soon I had her on the ground and we were beating the shit out of one another. All I could see was red and the thought of her now bleeding lips on my Dally. The little bitch was going to pay.

I hardly noticed me being pulled away from her. I got in a few good punched before I was drug outside and she was drug somewhere else. I looked up irritated to see who it was and once I saw his face my fist were up again. I knocked Dally right on his ass as I started in on him too. Swing after swing, Dally took as he held me tightly to his chest. After awhile though, I lost my energy and will to fight so I just layed emotionless in the jackass's arms.

"Let me go." I order him but he doesn't move. "Now Dallas."

"Not until we talk Stacy." He says as I looked up and glared at him. He was sporting two black eyes, his lip was busted, he had already been limping which I would guess was from some cracked ribs, and his cheek was turning a blue color. Maybe I should break his nose while I'm at it.

"We talked." I told him as I coutinued to give him my death glare.

"No you talked and then went nuts. It's my turn." Dally says and was about to coutinue when I interupted.

"You actually think you deserve a time to try and reason your way out of this? You are unbelieveable Winston! I know what happened so you don't have to waste your breath on some stupid lie." I tell him as I tried to get away but his grip tightened, trapping my arms to my sides so I couldn't swing at him.

"Stacy I don't know what I was thinking, okay? I have no fuckin' idea why I let the tramp put her lips to mine but I do know it was nothing like yours." I rolled my eyes at his excuse and was about to speak my thoughts when he switched positions so he held me to him with one arm and made me look him in the eyes with the other. "Stacy I love you, OK? I fuckin' love you! You're the first girl I've ever been able to say that too, hell I never told anyone that before and ment it. But I mean it now Stacy. God, you gotta believe me!"

I willed myself to hold back the tears. "How the hell am I suppose to believe you? I-I can't trust you again Dallas and you damn well knew this would happen! I-I should have said no to you and we wouldn't be like this!" I watched as his cold eyes sooned showed the look of hurt in them before trying to get out once more.

"Stacy I'm sorry, alright? I should have went to the Curtis' and stayed or I shouldn't have pressured you. Come on baby, you don't mean what you said." He says but I glare back at him.

"I mean it Winston! I gave you one chance and you blew it. It's all your fault but you know what, oh well. I'm so over you." I lie as I was now able to free myself from his arms. I got up and walked down the street, leaving Dally sitting there looking after me. I will always love that idiot but I can't put myself through that again. I can't. I won't and I shouldn't have to.

_TIM'S POV_

I walked home from Buck's since Soda and Steve were suppose to be working on my car. I couldn't believe little Stacy Richards had it in her but she sure showed Winston and Sylvia. From the way she was fighting, there ain't a doubt in my mind her brother taught her. Shoot, I thought for sure she was gonna send Sylvia to the hospital and I knew Winston had a death wish by pulling her away and bringing her outside with him. Of course I just happened to over hear it. Like I told Dally last night, Stacy is Donny's little sister and that means she's like mine as well.

It's pretty hard to believe that Dally would tell her he loved her. It shocked me even more we I could tell he really ment it. Dally Winston, much like myself, isn't suppose to fall in love. We're suppose to fuck random hot chicks and drink beer whenever we want and get jailed three times a month. We're not suppose to get tied down in a relationship or caught up with anyone but ourselves. Dally seemed to have broke that though and I can't help but wonder what's going to happen next. He seemed hell bent on getting her back but Stacy's stubborn and odds are high she ain't going to take him back. Only time will tell I guess.

When I walked in my house the devil itself was sitting there along with her daughter. Angela was doctoring her up and was grinning like a cat, most likely excited at the news on what happened.

"I can't believe I missed it! Next time wait till I get there." Angela says as she finishs up. All Stacy had was a few bruises, Sylvia's claw marks on her face and arms, her shirt was ripped a little, and a busted lip which was really surprising. Sylvia's one hell of a fighter and it's a wonder that's all she walked away with.

"Hey Tim!" Tess says as she grins at me from her momma's lap.

I gave her a small grin. "Hey kid."

"Hey." Stacy greets as she leaned back against the couch.

"Didn't think ya had it in ya kid." I tell her as I smirked. "Pretty good job ya did."

She smiled. "I was pulled away too soon. I didn't have near as much fun as I could have."

I laughed. "I'm sure."

"Mommy!" Tess grinned at her mother, her now brown curls jiggling like bells as she moved her head.

"Tess!" Stacy grinned at her.

Just then shoes came flying in and almost hit me in the head. I glared as I turned in my chair to see Curly walking on in. "What have I told you about your shoes kid?"

Curly just shrugged. "Sorry Tim, didn't see ya there."

"I'm sure." I rolled my eyes.

"I herd about what happened. Man Stacy, wish I could have seen." Curly grins at her as he sits in the arm chair.

She laughed a little. "Word sure does travel fast here."

"You know it." Angel grins. "I'm cookin' burgers, y'all staying?"

"Sure." Stacy says as she looks down at her daughter. "You hungry?"

"Yep." She says with a grin.

"Well I'll get started." Angel gets up and so does Stacy.

"I'll help, it's the least I can do." She says as she places Tess on the couch.

"I want three!" Curly called into the kitchen.

"I'll take the same!" I yelled as well.

"Y'all will get however many we cook." Angela called back as I herd her mutter about how useless we are.

"Get over it Angel." I tell her.

Tess got up and crawled in my lap, something that really shocked me. I hated little kids and never really gave them much attention. I basically raised Curly and Angela when I was a kid myself because Mom and Dad were always yelling at each other and most the time never gave a blink of attention to us. They're the only little kids I've ever fooled with and having Donny's niece climb up in my lap was kind of werid.

"Hey." I tell her.

She grinned and stood up in my lap. "Hey."

I wrapped my arms around her. At least no one here can see me and it's not like these three are going to run off and tell the world that I was actually nice to some little baby. They know I'll snap their necks if they so much as look guilty.

"What's that?" She asks as she traces my scar on the side of my face.

"A scar." I tell her.

"Where it come from?" She asks me with curious eyes.

"A dumb broad gave that to me." I tell her remembering the little bitch I mistakenly dated.

"What's a broad?" She asks me.

"A girl." I tell her as she looked at me with her blue eyes.

"No it's a term guys like to call girls because they think they can treat us like shit." Stacy says from behind my chair. I looked up at her with a frown as she grins at me. "I forgot how many y'all said y'all wanted."

"Three." I tell her.

She grinned. "Aye aye captain!"

Tess laughed as Stacy ran back into the kitchen.

"You're mother's crazy." I tell her as I herd Curly turn the TV on.

"Yep." She grinned as she turned in my arms so she could see what Curly was putting on. "Mickey!"

Curly stopped his channel flipping to the cartoon station. "Why is there never anything on when I'm actually home to watch it?"

"Mickey's on." Tess told him as her eyes were soon glued to the TV.

"This episode's really old." I say as I watched the screen.

"This show's really old." Curly snorted. "I'm surprise it hasn't been canceled."

"It's not that old kid." I tell him. "It's only been out for a few years."

Curly rolled his eyes. "It's been that long?"

"What are you talkin' about?" Angela came into the room. "You used to love this show as much as me."

"Things change." Curly says. "I thought you were cooking?"

Angel rolls her eyes. "I am. Stacy's watching the food right now."

"Angel!" Tess squeals and holds her arms up, indicating that she wanted her to hold her.

Angel smiled and scooped the kid up. "Hey little lady."

She grinned. "Hey!"

"Angela!" Stacy sang the fifthteen year olds name.

"Coming." Angela sang and placed Tess down on the ground.

"She left." Tess says as she looks at Angel retreating with a confused look. She looked so much like Donny right then and there.

"She had to go help your mom." I tell her. "She'll be back."

Tess smiled. "OK." She then looked over to where Curly was now laying on the couch. "Curly!"

Curly looked over just in time to see her run and jump on top of him. He gave her an annoyed look before sighing as she sat on his stomach. "What kid?"

"What ya doin'?" She asks him with a smile.

"Wondering why you're on top of me." He says but she soon had him grinning. "What are you doing?"

"Sitting on ya." She says as she smiles down at him.

"I can see that." He says and before long Angela and Stacy call us for dinner.

* * *

_STACY'S POV_

It was later that day and I took Tess to the park. Ever since I left the Shepards', I had this strange feeling someone was following me. I wasn't sure if it was just my imagionation or not but I really didn't want to take a chance. What if it was some guys from the Shark gang coming to check up on me? They might not know it's me but do I really want to take that chance.

"Come on Cindy, let's go see Daddy." I tell Tess with a wink of the eyes. I had been practicing this with her since the other day so incase someone was stalking us they wouldn't be so suspicious.

"OK Mommy." She says and jumps off the swing, taking my waiting hand in her's as we started our walk to the now fixed car. I had gotton Steve to put a new license plate on so they couldn't know my plate number. God I hope this works.

I buckled her into the carseat and drove home nervously. What if they overheard something about what happened earlier? The whole town is talking about it so if they just bring up my name then I'm so dead. What the hell am I suppose to do?

I pulled over on the side of the road and rested my head against the steering wheel. This was going to have the same ending either way. I could wait around and stay in hiding for awhile but Cody Hinderson isn't stupid and he's going to get me sooner or later. It's only going to be worse if I wait longer. If I go ahead and turn myself into him though that would be suicide.

"Mommy?" I looked in the backseat at my little girl. She's my reason for hiding. She's my reason for still breathing. Without her, I'd be dead along time ago. Without her, I don't know what I'd do.

"Yes sweetie?" I asked her softly.

"What's wrong?" She asks me with worry laced in her eyes. I never want her to worry. She's only two for crying out loud, she doesn't need to pick up my worry wort habit.

"Nothing baby, let's go home." I tell her as I put the car in drive and got back on the road.

"Is Daddy coming?" She asks as she stares out the window.

I couldn't lie to her no matter how much I wanted to. "Yeah, he's coming."

"Two-bit and Tim'll help." She says and I smile sadly as I stare at the road.

"Yeah." I tell her even though I know I won't let them get involved. It's my battle, not their's.

"And Dally too." Tess says and I had to stop the rush of tears that wanted to spill.

"I don't think Dally will." I tell her.

"Y'all had a fight?" She asks with the most innocent look I ever saw.

I smile sadly. "Yeah baby."

"He coming back?" She asks with hope in her eyes. Had she really liked him? He never really fooled with her other than the other day at the bowling ally so how could she had warmed up to him?

"I don't think so." I tell her as we pulled into the drive way. I got her out of the car and into the house as I tried to act calm but that act soon fell once I saw the black car slowly drive on by. The car was black with blue stripes on both sides with a Florida license plate. That was definitly one of the members of the Sharks' car. I hurried and got Tess into the house just in time to hear my phone ring.

I froze in my place, unable to move. Was it Cody? Could they possibly see through this disguise? Taking a deep breath, I slowly made my way to answer it when it was on it's fifth ring.

"Hello?" I say in a hoarse voice, my eyes wide as I waited for some sort of answer.

"Hey this is Jason Reams from the Dingo. I just wanted to remind you that you start work tomorrow morning sharp!" The male voice said and I sighed in relief.

"OK, thanks." I say before hanging up. I looked over at the two year old playing with her doll. The end is all too soon near.

AN: I KNOW, I KNOW IT'S ABOUT TIME SOME SIGNS OF CODY APPEAR! I'M SORRY BUT I WANTED TO LET STACY AND DALLY'S RELATIONSHIP ALONG WITH HER RELATIONSHIP WITH EVERYONE ELSE BLOOM WHILE BEFORE I BRING OUT THE EVIL EXBOYFRIEND. LOL. PLZ REVIEW ONCE AGAIN! D


	17. MsMacLean or is it MrsMacLean

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

_STACY'S POV_

It was my first day of work at the Dingo. Tess was in a day care that wasn't even two blocks away yet still I was worried. The Shark gang was here and if anyone knew my name, let alone my last name then I'd be as good as dead. I've had people come up to me all day asking if I was ' that Stacy chick who beat up Sylvia and Dally.' Luckly I don't think they know my last name unless they know I'm Donny's kid sister. After telling Tim about the car, he said he'd put the word out for everyone to keep their mouths shut about who I am if asked for or else he would personally beat the shit out of them. I sure hope this works.

This place wasn't so bad once you got passed the horney guys, the jealous girls, all the fighting, the drunks, and the horrible condition of the place. Let's just say it could be worse and leave it at that.

"Hey Tina, how's work?" I looked over to see Two-bit, Johnny, and Ponyboy walking over to me. I had signed my name as Tiny MacLean so my name tag wouldn't show who I really was.

"Well hello there." I greated with a smile.

"Hey sugar, I could use some more ice for my drink." I rolled my eyes at my most annoying custumer yet. He was seventeen, nearly six foot, dark sandy hair, and had to be the most horniest guy I've ever met and believe me, there's been a lot.

I grabbed his glass and fillled it up to the top before slidding it back down to him. "That should do you for awhile."

He just smirked. "That's way too much baby."

I rolled my eyes. "Then chew it."

"Why don't you do it for me? I see you have some pretty sharp teeth. I wonder how they would feel if you bit my -" I cut the son of a bitch off there.

"Stop wondering about things that will never happen Frank." I tell him as I turned my attention back to the guys who were looking at me amused. "What did I tell you two Pony and Johnny? When y'all come and visit, leave Two-bit at home."

The laughed while Two-bit gave me his offended look. "I've never felt so wanted in my life." He said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes yet again. "You should be."

"Rough day?" Pony asked me with a warm smile that he must have got from Sodapop.

I smiled with a shake of my head. "It could be worse."

Two-bit rolled his eyes. "Stop thinking so positively."

I laughed. "It's better than being negative."

He laughed but then got serious. "We herd who's in town. I don't think it's safe for you to be here."

I rolled my eyes. "What do you exspect me to do? Just sit around and wait at home for Cody to barge in and kill me? I ain't gonna be lazy my last days here."

"Don't go talkin' like that." Two-bit told me. "We'll keep you safe, I promise."

I rolled my eyes angerly. "Y'all can't keep me safe forever Mathews! It's better if I don't try to run and it's a whole lot safer if no one gets in the way. He'll kill you if you try to stop him and I won't let that happen."

"Stacy -" He started but was interupted by my boss.

"Tina, get back to work!" The over weight big shot yelled and I sighed.

"I gotta go." I said without another word.

* * *

It was later that day and things had gone from bad to worse. Two-bit and the guys had been long gone and Frank just happen to still be here annoying me when none other than Dallas Winston walks in.

"What do you want?" I asked him bitterly.

"A cheese burger, fries, and a coke." He says as he looks into my eyes with his cold blue ones. "And you back."

I just wrote his three things down and sent it to the cook and headed over to help the next costumer. I was stopped on my way back though by Dally's arms around my waist.

"Let go of me Winston." I tell him in my dangerous voice as I airbowed him in the arm.

"Stacy listen -" He started when I pulled out of his grip.

I snapped back around. "My name's not Stacy it's Tina so get it right."

He sighed frusteratedly. "Well Tina listen up. I already apologized to you and told you how I felt, what more can I do?"

I just glared at him. "You can forget you ever met me and go on with your life with your little tramp."

He just stared into my eyes as if looking for something. "You know as good as I do that I can't do that. I'm not with Sylvia nor will I ever be."

I just gave him a look and threw my arms in the air upset. "Yeah that's what you told me the other fuckin' day and look what happened when I believed that! Do yourself a favor and get the hell out of here."

"Stacy -" He tried again but I walked off.

"It's Tina." I told him as he followed me.

"Well Tina will you get me some more ice?" Frank asked with a smirk. "I seemed to have dropped all of it on the floor unless you want to bend down and pick it up?"

"That's it!" Dally yelled and was on top of Frank in no time.

I grabbed the back of his shirt and with the help of three other hoods, we pulled him off. "Dallas Winston get out!" I yelled at him.

He glared at me. "If I leave don't think for a second this will be the last time you see me."

I pointed to the door. "Just leave me the hell alone. We're over and I ain't dishin' out no second chances so get over it!"

He just gave me a long hard look over. "I will never get over you." He then walks out of the store and I'm left staring after him.

"Back to work MacLean!" My second calling of the day.

* * *

"Mommy!" Tess yells as she comes running up to me. It was four o'clock now and I had finally gotton off work and was at the daycare picking up my little girl. I lifted her up and hugged her tightly.

"Man did Mommy miss you!" I tell her with a grin on my face that matched hers.

"I missed you too." She says. "I made lots of friends today!"

I grinned. "Really? That's great baby."

"Ms.MacLean?" A twenty year old girl asked. "Are you ready to sign her out?"

I smiled. "Yep."

After signing her out, we headed home but I nearly lost it when I saw the same car I saw yesterday parked beside my drive way. I pulled in, trying to keep my cool.

"Baby, I need to check on something." I tell Tess. "Stay in here."

"OK." Tess says as she looks at me confused.

I rolled down the window so she could get some air, not really knowing how long this was going to take. I walked up to the car with pure fear but put on my tough act as I saw Carl Lender and Tommy Rangon get out and lean against the hood of their car.

"Can I help you?" I asked in a southern accent, hoping they wouldn't hear my real voice.

"Uh yeah, we were wondering if you happen to know a Stacy Richards?" Carl asked. "She's a small blonde with a two year old baby. I think she's sixteen."

I thought for a moment. "I don't believe sir. I used to know a Donny Richards but I can honestly say that I don't know a Stacy Richards." _Please fall for it! Please!_

"Alright." Tommy says with a sigh. "I saw you had a kid yourself."

I raised a brow. "Yes so what?"

"We were just making sure you wern't the girl we were looking for." Carl says as he lit a cigarette.

"Do I look like the gal you two were ramblin' on about?" I asked them as I crossed my arms over my chest. _Please don't recognize me, please!_

"No dollface, you don't." Tommy says. "Do you happen to be single?" He asks in a flirty tone.

I raised a brow. "I'm fuckin' married!"

"Where's your ring then?" Carl asked me with a brow raised.

"I forgot to put it on this morning when I took a shower. Is that really any of your business anyway?" I asked them.

"Hey Tina." I looked over to see Steve walking over to me.

"Hey honey." I tell him as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed my forehead before looking at the two guys.

"Who are y'all?" He asked as he glared at them.

"We're just looking for someone. Is this your wife?" Tommy asked him with a brow raised.

"Yes it is, you have a problem with that?" Steve asked clearly annoyed. Thank God he's going along with this.

"No, not at all. We were just asking her if she happen to know a Stacy Richards." Carl says. "Would you happen to know her?"

Steve thought for a moment. "Yeah I remember her. She came about a week or so ago."

They perked up in interest while I gave him a look. What is he doing? "Oh yeah, where might we find her?"

"Well I don't know that anymore. When the town found out who her brother was we ran her out of town. Like we want another Richards in this little ole town!" Steve says as his grip tightens on me. "Where's Larie?"

"She's in the car." I told him. "I put the window down 'cause I wasn't sure what these here fellows wanted."

"Is there anything else you men want?" Steve asked them.

Tommy cursed. "No but would you happen to know where y'all ran her too?"

Steve gave him a look and said in the most southern accent. "Like hell I know. I run a lot of gals away from me but I never keep tabs on them afterwards. Now scram before I go get my shot gun."

"Well thanks anyway." Carl says before they head off into the car and drive away. Once we were sure they were blocks away we both started laughing and went to get Tess out the car.

"You have a shot gun?" I asked with a laugh as I placed Tess on my hip.

He laughed. "They left didn't they?"

"Thanks honey, you're a real hero." I say as I kissed his cheek.

"No problem darlin'." He says with a grin.

Tess grinned. "Did I miss somethin'?"

We laughed. "You know how I told you those bad guys were coming that's why you had to pretend your name was Larie MacLean and I was Tina MacLean? Well that was them baby and Steve here acted like he was my husband."

She laughed and reached out for Steve to hold her. "So now you're my pretend Daddy?"

He grinned and held her up against his chest. "I guess so."

"So what are you doing home?" I asked Steve. "I thought you and Soda had to work late?"

"We do but I had to get something at the Curtis' we forgot when I saw them talking to you. I didn't know if you were in trouble so I decided to just make sure." Steve says. "Y'all want to come hang out with us incase they come back?"

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea." I tell him as we followed him to his truck that had DX writen on the side. "Thanks for coming to my rescue."

We drove to the DX listening to Elvis and once we got there there were hardly any costumers.

"Hey Soda." Steve called as we walked on in.

"Took ya long enough." Soda says with a grin. "Hey Tina, hey Larie!"

"Hey Sodapop!" We say as we sat on the counter he was leaning against.

"They found her." Steve says as he looks at me. "And we had to put on a little act to convince them we had no clue where Stacy Richards was."

Soda smile vanishes. "Did they believe it?"

I grinned. "I think they did, especially when Steve told them he was about to go get his shot gun."

Sodapop laughed. "Now I would have loved to see this."

"Steve's my new pretend Daddy." Tess tells him.

Soda grins down at her. "Well ain't that neat!"

I sighed and looked out the window. It would be all over soon enough. They new where I was and no matter how hell bent on saving me the gang was, Cody would find me and Tess. Maybe I should hurry and leave town. No, he could be exspecting me to do that. Our little act wouldn't hold up forever because Hinderson was a smart guy and would see through it.

"Don't worry." Sodapop says as he wrapped his arm around me protectively, bringing me into his chest and kissed my head.

I smiled sadly at him. If only I could do just that.

AN: I KNOW IT AIN'T THAT LONG BUT BARE WITH ME PLEASE! PLZ REVIEW!


	18. I Love You

* * *

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!!

_DALLY'S POV_

"Are you crazy!" I was beyond pissed now. Why the hell would the stupid idiots let Stacy stay at her house by herself? What if those son of a bitches come at night and she's the only one there?

"Now Dally -" Two-bit started but I cut him off.

"She's not safe there!" I roared as I paced around the Curtis' living room.

"She wouldn't be alone if it wasn't for you." I glared at him and Two-bit returned it. "If you hadn't went out and been the jackass you are then you'd be there to protect her! She refuses to let anyone stay with her that's why we're here. Shepard's done tried to reason with her but all that got him was a door slammed in his face. She doesn't want us there."

"Well rather she wants me there or not I'm going." I say as I headed out the door. I wasn't about to let the dumb broad get herself killed because of her stubborness. I walked across the street and decided to go for her bedroom window, knowing she would never let me in the front door. My luck has been bad for days so it was no surprise that her window was locked. I tried the one in her bathroom and by some miracle it was unlocked. I climbed threw it and if I would have been a little bit bigger, I knew I would have gotton stuck. Planting both feet on the floor, I shut the window and locked it before walking out to find the girl I stupidly let run out of my life.

She was sitting on the couch with Tess watching cartoons while eating ice cream. Her now brown hair was in a loose and messy pony tell and she was wearing some huge old shirt with plad shorts while Tess was in some Mickey pajamas.

"Hey." I say and had to hold back a smirk when I saw her nearly jump a foot in the air.

She glared at me once she calmed herself down and got to her feet. "What the hell are you doing here? Better yet, how the hell did you get in here?"

This time I did smirk. "You left you bathroom window unlocked. There ain't no way I'm about to let you stay here by yourself."

Her glare never faded away and I couldn't help but think how cute she is when she's mad. "Get out! I'm perfectly fine by myself."

I just sat down on the couch next to Tess. "Yeah right. You're gonna get yourself killed all because you had to be stubborn."

"I am not!" She argued. "Anyway, what makes you think I want you in my home with me? If you don't remember, I told you I didn't want anything to do with you anymore!"

I smirked. "Yeah but I never said I didn't want anything to do with you."

Her face got red and I had to hold back a laugh. This is why I loved when she was mad. She had the most funniest and adorable look when she got mad. Her face would go red and her eyes would narrow and I swear if I looked hard enough I could see steam coming out of her ears. She looked even more pissed when I started laughing and I thought for sure she was going to hit me again.

"What the hell is so funny Dallas Winston?!" She yells at me and I bet Shepard down the road could here her.

I chuckled some more before wrapping my arms around her waist, pulling her into me on my lap. She stiffened and tried to get away but I just held on tighter to her and stroked her hair. Pretty soon she was fully relaxed and was limp in my arms.

"You have any idea how funny you are when you're mad?" I asked her with a smirk.

She glared up at me but didn't try to get up. "Why don't you just shut up Winston."

"Are you staying the night?" Tess asks me as she looks over at me. The look in her eyes shocked me. She wanted me to stay the night, that's what her eyes said.

I looked down at Stacy who seemed to notice this as well. "Am I?"

Stacy glares up at me. "On the couch."

I grinned down at her. "I knew you still loved me."

She glared up at me. "I never told you I loved you."

"You didn't have to for me to know." I tell her with a smirk. "Every girl loves me."

She hit me hard on the arm. "You're so full of yourself."

I chuckled. "I'm just confindent."

"Well stop it." She says as she yawns tiredly. "It's time for you to go to bed Tess."

"Why, I'm not tired." Tess says even though she's rubbing her eyes.

Stacy smiles at her and gets out of my arms to go put her to bed. "Come on baby girl, I know you're as tired as I am."

"Night Dally." She says as they walk passed me.

"Night kid." I say as I switched the channel, smiling in victory. I knew I'd get her to say yes. Now all I have to do is find a way to get her back and everything will be perfect. At least once that Cody guy is gone that is.

Stacy soon returned out of the room. "Let's get this straight. The only reason you're here is because Tess appearently wants you to be for some unknown reason. You can sleep on the couch for tonight but after that, you're gone. Got it?"

I just smirked and I knew it was driving her crazy. "Got it baby."

"Don't call me that." She glared at me as she walked passed me and into the kitchen where some dirty dishes were. I smirked and followed her quietly and wrapped my arms around her once she was in the middle of washing some plates.

"Let go of me." She says angerly and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"You know you don't want me to." I whisper in her ear.

_STACY POV_

He was right, I didn't want him to let go of me. I wanted to stay wrapped up in his arms like I was a few days ago but I'd never tell him that. I was suppose to hate him. I was suppose to want him gone and out of my life forever but I just couldn't let him go. I fell in love with him the short week that I was here but it felt like a life time. His hot breath tickled my ear and I knew I had to get away from him before I did something I'd regret.

"Yes I do." I tell him as I tried to wiggle out of his arms but he just held on tighter. Why didn't I just go to bed with Tess?

"You can't lie to me." He whispered as I leaned back into his arms against my own will. Why was it so easy to love him? It should be a lot easier to hate him but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Sadly, he still had a spell on me.

"I'm not, you're just believing what you want to believe." I tell him softly as I squirm in his arms, desprite to get away now. I had a feeling he was about to do something that I wouldn't be able to resist and sure enough, he soon started kissing my neck. I froze in his arms and the pleasure I got a few days ago when he did it had once again returned.

"Stop it Da-Dally." I tell him as I tried to get away again but he turned me in his arms so I was now facing him. His eyes wern't as cold as they usually were and actually showed some emotion.

"Why are you doing this? You know you want me so why say you don't?" He asks me as he looked deep into my gray eyes.

"I don't want you." I knew he could tell that was a lie. "And even if I did, I wouldn't allow myself to be with scum like you. I'm not the kind of girl who would stay with a bastard who loves to run around on me."

He was quiet for a moment. "That was a mistake Stacy and you know it. I hate myself for letting Sylvia get to me and ruining the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"Do you really mean that?" I asked him as I raised a brow and searched his eyes. It's pretty hard to believe he was telling the truth but I didn't know rather to be happy or sad once I saw that it looked like he was being honest.

He held on to me tighter. "Yes Stacy, I really mean it. If you had just been another good time then I wouldn't be here right now, would I?"

He had me there but I wasn't about to give in that easily. "Maybe you figure you'd try to get me in bed before Cody comes and I'm gone."

I was soon pressed against his chest in his strong hold. "Don't talk like that Stacy, we're going to protect you. That bastard isn't going to get to you as long as I'm still breathing."

I held back the tears that wanted to fall. How could he still care so much about me? This would be so much easier if he didn't. "Why do you care so much? We've only known each other for a week yet you people seem to care so flippin' much."

I felt him rub my back and I returned his hug, wrapping my arms around him as tightly as I could. "I told you this yesterday Stacy, I love you and so does everyone else. Some how, some way, you've changed us in the short amount of time you've been here. You're another sister to the Shepards', a good friend to the Curtis', a 'pretend' husbend to Steve, Two-bit's best friend appearently, and you're everything to me."

I couldn't believe the fearless hood Dallas Winston was telling me this. I looked up at him in shock as the tears slowly fell from my eyes. He looked as serious as they come and I knew he wasn't lying. "I thought you couldn't love anyone. I mean, you're a hood. Every guy I've dated has been a down right punk and they've been unable to love anyone, let alone me."

He smiled a little. "Well I guess I'm not like every guy you've ever dated."

I couldn't help but smile back. "I guess not."

"I'm a lot better than them and a lot better lookin' too." He smirked and I rolled my eyes.

"Just kill the moment Dallas." I smiled and he laughed.

"Can you do me a favor though?" Dally asks me and I looked up confused. "Don't go tellin' Angela Shepard or anyone else about all this stuff I'm tellin' you. My reputation will be ruined so fast, it'll make your head spin.

I laughed. "Aw Dally's ashamed of being nice."

He smirked. "I'm nice to people I just don't like everyone knowing it."

I rolled my eyes and was about to say something but was interupted with Dally's lips on mine. He sucked on my bottom lip as he waited to see if I would allow him entrance and I soon gave in, wanting to explore his mouth as well. The rough kiss soon turned passionate and I only pulled away once I was out of breath.

I leaned against his chest and felt Dally's heart beating like crazy and I knew mine was doing the same. I was torn between wanting to kiss him back and slapping him in his face but I did niether. I really needed to think about this before I said anything to him.

I looked up at him to see a smile on his face. It wasn't his arrogant or cocky smile or even his ruthless or lustful smile. It was one I was sure I hadn't seen before. It matched mine I was sure and it proved to me what he said earlier was true. He was in love with me just like I was in love with him.

"What do you say?" He asks in his deep voice and I smile as I coutinue to stare in his eyes, wanting to remember this look forever.

"I don't know." I tell him. "I want to but I-I just don't know."

He held me tightly. "Just think about it. I promise I'll never hurt you again and I'll always protect you, no matter what baby."

I held him tightly as well as I baried my face in his shirt. I loved him so much for some unknown reason and as much as I wanted to be with him, I knew we'd all too soon be pulled apart by Cody and I didn't know if I wanted to go through that. On the other hand, maybe we should. Didn't someone once say "It is better to have loved once then to have never loved at all"?"

I looked back up at him and pulled him back into a rough kiss. I couldn't take it and I knew he wanted it as bad as I did. I think I'm going to chose to go with that quote, at least for right now. We soon found our way to the couch and was in a make out seccion and I silently prayed Tess didn't wake up. My shirt was soon gone and so was Dally's and his pants as the heat soon rose between us.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "Let's do it." I moan out to Dally as he coutinued to hit every hotspot of mine.

He looked up at me and grinned. "Are you sure?"

I gave him a look. "If we don't I'll die now come on!" I don't really know what I was thinking but I guess I got caught up in the moment. I knew I probably would regret it in the morning but right now, I was just going to enjoy it.

* * *

_DALLY'S POV_

It was still dark when I woke up and I almost forgot where I was until I felt someone wrapped up in my arms. A flashback of last night soon came to me and I grinned, remembering how Stacy had moaned my name. It was probably around five thirty since the sun still wasn't out but it wasn't as dark as it usually was so I decided to get dressed incase Tess woke up. We were lucky she didn't wake up last night since we weren't really being quiet. I know for a fact Stacy would have killed me if she would have even though it was her idea.

I smirked down at Stacy once I finished getting dress, putting on all but my shoes and shirt. Who cares if my shirt is off anyways? I guess I'll wake Stacy up and get her dressed before Tess wakes up even though it would be quite hilarious to see what excuse she would come up with for why she was sleeping naked on the couch. She'd probably say something like, "I was going to take a bath but felt so tired I had to go lay down."

She looked so peaceful sleeping curled up in a little ball so I decided I'd just dress her. She stired in her sleep when I pulled her in my arms but soon fell back asleep once I started whispering in her ear. I pulled my shirt over her head and pulled her arms threw before pulling her shorts on, not bothering with her underwear. I just held her after that for awhile, knowing that I wouldn't get this chance later.

It was an hour later when Tess came down the hall. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked over at us and smiled before making her way to sit beside me.

"What are you doing up so early kid? It's not even seven yet." I tell her as she yawns and leans against me.

"I'm always up early." She says as she smiled at her mom. "Mommy stayed with you last night?"

"Yeah." I say as I gave her a small smile.

"Y'all made up?" She asks me and I couldn't help but think how much she looked like Stacy.

"I think so." I tell her. Stacy never really did say yes but from her actions last night, I'd say we did more than just made up.

"Good." She says as she turns the TV on and turns the volume down low.

"Why you say so kid?" I asked her curiously. Why did the kid like having me around? Most kids were terrified of me yet she didn't seem to be the least bit afraid.

She smiled at me. "Mommy like you and so do I."

I raised a brow. "Why do you like me so much? I never really played with ya like Two-bit."

She smiled. "So?"

I started to ask her again but then I reasoned with myself that I was talking to a little two year old who probably doesn't really know what she's saying.

"Ummhm." I looked down to see Stacy's eyes flurted open tiredly as she stretched a little and rubbed at her eyes. She looked up at me and smiled and then looked at Tess. The memory of last nigt must have dawned on her 'cause she quickly looked down and sighed in relief once she saw she had clothes on now and I couldn't help but smirk.

"Morning Mommy." Tess smiles at her and Stacy returns it.

"Morning baby, you hungry?" She asks as she attempts to crawl out of my lap but wasn't awake enough to do so appearently.

"Sure." Tess says as Mickey comes on and she zones everything out.

Stacy sighed and looked up at me with a tired smile. "Carry me to the kitchen."

I chuckled and stand up with her in my arms, taking her by surprise.

She laughed. "I didn't think you were really going to."

"Why of course." I tell her as I bring her into the kitchen and set her down on the counter.

She smiles up at me and hugs my waist. "I love you."

I smiled down at her and kiss her head. "I love you too."

AN: SORRY, NO CODY IN THIS ON BUT NEXT CHAPTER HAS A LOT OF HIM IN IT AND YOU'LL GET HIS POV. I WASN'T GOING TO DO THIS CHAPTER BUT I CHANGED MY MIND AND DECIDED WHY NOT? TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!


	19. Cody's In Tulsa

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!! I START SCHOOL FRIDAY AND AM TRYING TO GET THIS STORY FINISHED BEFORE THEN SO I MIGHT BE UPDATING EVERYDAY OR TWICE A DAY...DEPENDS ON WHAT I HAVE GOING ON THAT DAY.

_STACY'S POV_

"Buh bye Mommy! Bye Dally!" Tess says one last time before going off with Two-bit. Today was my day off and I was going to spend it with Tess but Two-bit insisted he watch her. He 'claims' she hasn't been to his house in forever and they needed to catch up on their game of Candy Land. I just rolled my eyes and since Tess practically begged me, I let him take her for a little while.

"So what are we going to do?" Dally asked me with a smirk on his face as he pulled me close to him.

I grinned up at him. "I don't know..."

He reached down and kissed me roughly and I didn't argue. I don't know why I gave in to him last night but as werid as it is, I don't regret it. I don't know why but I just can't bring myself to thinking it was a mistake.

"You want to stay in today?" Dally asks me as his kisses moved down my chin to my neck.

I held back a moan as I gripped on to his shirt. "Sure."

As soon as I said that, he threw me over his shoulder and carried me to my bedroom. I laughed and tried to get down but it was very slim that little ole me was going to get away from Dal and we both knew it too. I was soon layed on my back on my bed with Dally hovering above me.

"What shall we do first?" He asks with a smirk.

I smiled. "Stacy doesn't know."

"Dally does." He replies before kissing me deeply as his fingers travel through my hair. Before long we were both in the positions we were in last night and once again I gave in.

_CODY'S POV (YAY HIS FIRST!!)_

I had been out of jails for two days now and had just arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Carl and Tommy, my two second in commands, swear Stacy Richards isn't here but I don't believe it. The bitch wasn't the brightest girl and I knew she'd run off to where her brother did. It just made sence to.

I was driving through the rich neighborhoods right now but I knew if I really wanted to find her I'd have to look on the other side of the tracks. Richards may be stupid but I knew she wasn't dumb enough to try and make it on this side of town.

Run down house and shitty yards soon came to view and I knew I was searching in the right place. I'd have to coutinue my search in a few minutes though because the damn car seemed to be out of gas. I pulled over to a DX station and went inside as the dark haired guy by the name of Steve filled my car up. A movie star lookin' guy was sitting on the other side of the counter talkin with a dark haired and skinned kid who looked pretty young and a rusty haired guy with long side burns with a kid on his lap. I got a good look at the kid and couldn't help but feel like I knew her. She had brown curly hair with bright blue eyes and her laugh sounded strangely familer.

"A pack of smokes." I tell the guy behind the counter.

He looked me over a little before getting them. I looked over at the kid and saw her looking at me and biting her lip. I raised a brow at her but thought nothing of it, deciding to go ahead and leave so I'd have a better chance of catching Stacy before nightfall. Knowing her, she's made friends by now and we all know with friends comes enamies. Maybe I'll be lucky and run into one or two.

_TWO-BIT'S POV_

The guy lefted and I couldn't help but notice how much he resembled somebody. He was clad in a pair of old jeans and a black shirt and had long white blonde hair with cold blue eyes. You could just tell he was a down right hood and pretty strong by the looks of his muscles. He seemed to take an interest in Tess because he kept staring at her. I just tightened my grip on her, not willing to let anything happen to her.

Once we saw his car pull away Tess looked up at me and said, "That was my Daddy."

We all looked at her shocked. "T-That was Cody?" Sodapop asked her worriedly.

"Yeah that was him." She says as if it wasn't a big deal. I guess it wouldn't really accore to her that it was.

"We gotta call Stacy." I say as I grabbed the phone and dialed the sixteen year old's number.

_DALLY'S POV_

I had just got in her when the damn phone rings. Stacy was pinned down to the bed and I wasn't about to let her go answer it but once she threatened that this would be our last time doing this if I didn't stop right now, I got out of her and let her up.

"What's the big deal?" I asked her as I followed her into the living room where the phone was.

"It could be Tess." She says as she grabs a towl to wrap around her even though it's just us here. "Hello?"

Her happy mood soon turned as the person began to speak. I saw her stiffin and placed a hand over her mouth as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. I was at her side in no time and had her wrapped up in my arms as soon as she hung up.

"What's wrong?" I asked her as she started to sob, only making me tighten my grip on her.

"C-Cody's here. He was at the DX and Tess saw him." She somehow managed to say.

I rubbed her back with one hand and stroked her hair with my other hand. "It's gonna be alright. I won't let him touch you. He didn't know it was Tess, right?"

"Two-bit said he kept looking at her but never said anything. Oh God, what am I going to do?" She cried into my chest. "I-I don't want to die now! I'm only sixteen for crying out loud!"

"Shush darlin' shush. I ain't gonna let anyone touch you." I told her and I ment it too.

"I-I used to try to kill myself all the time. I couldn't wait to die but now..." She coutinued to cry. "I don't wanna Dally!"

"Shush baby, shush." I rocked her back and forth as she coutinued to cry in my chest. "It's all gonna be OK."

Pretty soon she was fast asleep so I scooped her up and made a quick phone call to Tim before heading back to her room and placing her on her bed and getting her dressed for the second time that day. I covered her up and got myself dressed just in time to unlock the door and see Tim, Curly, and Angel waiting impatiently.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him frusteratedly. I wasn't about to lose Stacy. Not now, not ever. I just got her back and I wasn't about to let anyone take her away from me.

"What do we know about this Cody guy besides the fact that he's after Stacy?" Tim asked as he paced the room angerly.

"I appearently look like him." I say with a sigh. "I can't just sit around here and do nothin' damnit!"

"Well you just can't go and attack the guy!" Tim yelled at me. "Since when are you back with Stacy anyway?"

"Since last night." I told him as my anger rose. "You idiots were really going to let her spend the night by herself? I ain't like you fools and I wasn't about to let her stay here by herself."

"Well I tried to get her to let one of us stay with her but she refused." Tim told me with a glare.

"It's called sneaking through the window." I say as I rolled my eyes.

"Where _is_ Stacy?" Angela asked me irritated.

"Asleep in her room." I told her. "She cried herself to sleep once she herd the news. We gotta fuckin' do something man!"

"We will." Tim says as he sits on the couch and baries his face in his hands, clearly thinking of something.

"Can't we just guard her?" Curly asks stupidly. "Get a bunch of guys from the gang to help?"

Both Tim and I give him a look. "Oh 'cause it won't look suspecious if a bunch of hoods are guarding her house or anything." I rolled my eyes.

"Where you come up with something better Winston." He glared at me.

"I think I got an idea." Tim says as he looks at us. "Hopefully it'll work too."

_CODY'S POV_

I walked into this place called Buck's and asked about a Stacy Richards. Strangely nobody would admit to knowing her but I could tell they were lying. Especially this sexy blonde.

"Are you sure?" I asked her as I coutinued to check her out.

"I'm sure." She snapped her bubble gum. "You know what? You look like Dallas Winston."

"Who's that?" I asked her curiously.

"This sexy hood I seem to always be with." She said with a smirk.

"Well if I look like him then you must think I'm sexy too." I say with a smirk. "Are you sure you don't know who she is?"

"I'm sure." She says as she gives me that lustful look.

"What if I did this?" I asked as I kissed her roughly. After a few minutes, I pulled away and looked into her eyes. "Are you sure you still don't know?"

"I'll tell you what you want to know on two conditions." She says to me with a lustful smirk. "One, you don't reveal who told you."

"Got it." I tell her with a bitter grin.

"Two, we go upstairs right now and fuck our brains out." She says with a grin.

I smirked. "You got it babe. By the way, I'm Cody."

She smiled as she lead me up the stairs. "Sylvia."

AN: I KNOW IT'S NOT LONG AND NIETHER ARE THE POV'S BUT THIS IS THE ONLY WAY I COULD SEE TO WRITE THIS CHAPTER!! PLEASE REVIEW!!


	20. On His Way

AN: I AM SOOOO SORRY ABOUT THE LONG DELAY!! HIGHSCHOOL IS JUST REALLY WHEREING ME DOWN BUT HOPEFULLY IT WON'T TAKE ME THAT LONG TO UPDATE THE NEXT CHAPTER. I WAS SUPPOSE TO HAVE THIS ALREADY FINISHED BUT APPEARENTLY THINGS DIDN'T GO TO PLAN SO JUST A QUICK NOTE THAT THERE ARE ONLY A FEW MORE CHAPTERS LEFT!!

_STACY'S POV_

"Are you sure this is going to work?" I was sitting on the couch wrapped up in Dally's arms with my sleeping daughter in my lap. The Shepards', the Curtis', Two-bit, Steve, and Johnny were all in my living room as we went over Tim's plan. It could work but there were some really big risks that I would have to take and I wasn't sure if I was willing to do some of them. I was still scared stiff about Cody being in the same town but I knew I needed to chill; freaking out would get me no where and only be wasting time.

"As long as everyone does what I tell them then yes, it should." Tim says as he sips on his coke. The guys nearly freaked once they realized I didn't have any beer in my fridge. I've been here what, a week and they're just now noticing this? Like I said, I have a baby in the house and I don't drink so why would I buy beer?

"Alright, I guess we could give it a try." I say with a lot of thought. I was not only putting my life on the line but everyone elses too and that was a lot to handle. If anything happened to them I would never forgive myself.

"So on the other hand." Two-bit says with the first grin of the day. "Since when is Dally back in the picture."

I blushed a little and gave a small, embarrassed laugh. "Well you see what happened was..."

They all laughed and rolled their eyes. Was it my fault Dally had some crazy spell on me? I never imagioned I'd ever fall in love but here I was, in the arms of my so called Prince Charming.

"Let's get to work." Tim says and we start to go into details of the plan.

* * *

_CODY'S POV_

I was heading down the road to the address Sylvia had gave me. She sure was good in bed...maybe we could hook up after I take care of Richards. According to her, Stacy was now a brunet and so was Tess and hung out with a group of boys known as the Curtis gang and the leader of the Shepards gang. I'm just going to pay them a little visit.

"Hey man, you got a cancer stick?" A kid around the age of sixteen asked. He had really curly black hair that was greased back and you could just tell he was a JD.

Deciding to be nice for a change, I threw one at him. "Sure man."

He lit it up and got a good look at me. "You new 'round here? I ain't seen you before I'm sure."

A hood with a country accent. I'm sure you could only find this in Oklahoma. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

The hood blew out smoke rings. "Where you heading? I might could help you find it better."

Thinking for a moment, I nod. "Sure. I'm looking for a girl named Stacy Richards. I've been told she lives over on Sutton, across the street from some place known as the Curtis'."

I saw something flash in his eyes but before I could see what it was, his eyes were emotionless again. He took a long draw from him cigarette and took his time letting the cloud of smoke out of his mouth, watching the rings float in the air.

"Yeah, I herd of her. She used to live in that house but paid me and a few others thirty bucks yesterday to help her move." He finally says.

"Where did she move to? Better yet, why did she move?" I couldn't tell if this guy was for real or if he was a cover up and it was making me angry.

"All I did was load up her car man, I don't know where all she moved. You'd have to ask my brother that. She told me that someone was after her and that's why she had to go." He says as he leans back farther against the fence. "She had a baby too."

"I know that." I told him as I thought it through. She could have herd that I was here and decided to hurry up and leave again but that just doesn't sound like her. She's not one of those girls that waits around and hides forever. That's one of the few things I've always liked her for. "You said your brother would know where she is?"

The kid looked back up at me and nodded. "Yeah, he had to load some of her stuff up in his truck and take it so I assume he would know where she now lives."

Smartass kid. Why is he my only help? I should have just gone back to that trap Sylvia and asked again. "Well take me to your brother kid."

"Call me kid again and see if I don't pull out my blade." He glared at me.

I glared back. "You really want to mess with me?"

He smirked. "You wanna find the girl or not? I can just easily walk away..."

I glared at him. "Or I could threaten you with your life if you don't tell me where she is."

He just smirked. "Yeah and then my brother would murder you and you'd never get to see Richards."

I glared at him for a minute. "Fine, let's go ki- er what's your name?"

We started walking before he turned to me and said, "Curly."

"Cody." I told him. "What kind of name is Curly?"

He glared at me. "A nickname idiot."

I glared at him. The dumb kid was really pushing my buttons. Hopefully his brother wouldn't be too difficult like this kid was.

_TIM'S POV_

Dally and me were at my house waiting for Curly to lead the guy here. The Curtis' and the rest of their gang along with Angela were with Stacy at her new "house".

"Hey Tim!" I herd Curly call as he came threw the door with a guy that looked just like Dally. "This guy is looking for that girl you helped moved yesterday."

"What about her?" I asked the guy.

"Where did she move to?" He asked in a cold and bitter voice.

"She's about a mile on the outskirts of Tulsa. About an hour drive." I told him emotionaless.

"Could ya give me better directions?" He raised a brow. "Like what the house looks like and how would I know if I was getting close."

"Why don't you just follow me there?" I asked him. "She forgot something in my truck so I was going to take it out there anyway."

He smirked. "Sure thing."

We headed outside and Cody got in the back while Dal and Curly climbed in the cab of the truck since Curly had probably bugged the hell out of the guy already and he was bound to throw him out if he sat in the back with him and Dally wouldn't be able to control himself and would start a fight with the guy. It was a miracle in itself that he's been able to control his anger for this long. I climbed in the driver side and backed out and headed down the road, giving this Cody guy a run for his money.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Dally asked as he glared out the window.

"If you stick with my plan it will." I told him as I pulled on a dirt road.

"It better work." Dally says as he look threw the mirror outside to see Cody hanging on the side of the truck as we hit a bump going sixty. I wasn't about to take any of these roads easy with a guy in the back who wants to kill Donny's kid sister. I just hope he can hold on good enough 'cause once I hit River Road I'm going ninety.

"What if it doesn't work?" Curly asks me. "What if he sees through this and gets a hold of Stacy?"

I gave him a look. "It will work if everyone sticks to the plan. Fuck kid, since when do you question me?"

"I just don't know if this will work. What if we're setting Stacy up? You herd what she said, this guy is pretty smart." Curly says as he look behind him threw the glass to see if Cody was still in the back.

"Listen to me and listen good kid. This is going to work and Stacy isn't going to get hurt and neither is Tess. Somehow I doubt this guy is half as smart since he got in the back of the truck willingly." I said as I took a left of River Road.

"Alright, alright." Curly says and gives up on the arguement but Dally starts it up.

"This better work Shepard." I could tell it was taking everything he had to not jump out and grab Cody by his shirt.

"If one of you questions me one more time I'm gonna beat the skin right off of ya." I threaten them. Gee, can't they just do what I say and stop worrying? I wouldn't just risk Stacy's life and ours too if I wasn't positive this would work.

The rest of the drive was quiet and true to my words, an hour later we were there. There was an old abandoned cabin that Stacy was "now living at" and it didn't take us to long to pull up to it.

_STACY'S POV_

I was shaking with nerves as I sat on some old smelly couch as I waited for Cody to come. I don't think I've ever been so nerves in my life. Tess was playing with Two-bit, the Curtis' were watching out the window along with Steve and Johnny, and Angel was trying to get me to relax. I couldn't though. I mean, how relaxed would you be if your exboyfriend was on his way to kill you?

The only time I could think of when I was more scared then now was back when I was seven...

_"Donny!" I yelled as tears rolled down my cheeks. It was really dark and storming like crazy and Mommy and Daddy were at work. Donny and me were left to find shelter in our small house as the hurricane hit the shores. _

_"It's OK Stacy-Lue. I'm right here." Donny told me as he wrapped me up in his strong ten year old arms. The lights had been out for an hour now and it felt like a monster was outside and demanding entrance to our home. We were in Donny's room in his bed while we waited for the storm to go away but it had yet to show signs of going anywhere. The screen door kept opening and shutting and I could hear trees snapping off from the strong winds outside. _

_"Why won't it go away Donny?" I cried into his chest. I was so scared and I thought for sure it was gonna get us._

_"Shush sweetie, it's just a storm. It can't get us from in here." He told me in his gentle tone that always calmed me down. "Just relax babygril."_

_That had been my first time being in a really bad hurricane and I don't know what I would have done without Donny by my side._

I could almost feel his arms around me and hear him whispering in my ear now but I know it's just my imagionation. Donny's dead...like I'll soon be. That only sends me into more tears though.

I was brought out of my horrible thoughts by the sound of Tim's truck pulling up...

AN: AGAIN SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! I'LL TRY TO UPDATE THE NEXT CHAPTER A LOT SOONER!! PLEASE REVIEW!


	21. It'll All Be Alright

AN: I'M GOING TO TRY AND FINISH THIS BEFORE TUESDAY. AS MOST OF YOU MIGHT KNOW, HURRICANE GUSTAV IS HITTING SHORES EARLY TUESDAY MORNING AND LUCKY ME LIVES AN HOUR WAY FROM NEW ORLEANS! WE'LL PROBABLY LOSE ELETRICITY FOR A FEW DAYS IDK, WHEN KATRINA HIT 3 YEARS AGO TODAY WE DIDN'T HAVE POWER TILL 3 WEEKS LATER. I WANT TO HURRY AND TRY TO FINISH THIS THAT WAY I CAN'T POST PONE IT ANY LATER! SORRY FOR THE LONG DELAY!!

_STACY'S POV_

"Oh God." I hear myself say as I hear car doors slam tightly shut. _It's too soon. I haven't had time to prepare! What if Tim's wrong? What if this doesn't work? What am I going to do?!_

"Just relax and stick to the plan Stacy." Sodapop tells me with a reasuring smile. How he can smile at a time like this is beyond me.

I took a deep breath before watching everyone get up and hurry into another room quietly. _Just relax Stacy. Everything's going to work. Tim and Dally won't let anyone hurt you. Just stop worrying._

My encouraging thinking was soon cut short when Cody opened the door. His pale blue eyes stared right into mine and I was unable to turn my gaze away from them. It felt like his cold eyes were piercing my heart and I imagion my look was one of a deer caught in headlights.

Soon an evil smirk forms on his face. "Stacy baby, it's been way too long."

I can't even move, let alone talk.

"Hey Stacy, we're just bringing you the box of stuff you left in the truck yesterday." Tim says with a wink of his dark blue eyes.

I still can't move. It's like I was frozen to the ground, staring right at the sorry bastard who's to blame for why most of my life was hell. I knew I needed to say something or else I wouldn't stand a chance but no matter how much I screamed in my mind to say something, anything it just wouldn't work.

Cody approaches me but I know he won't do anything. There were witnesses in the room and killing me infront of them ment he'd have to kill them too. I knew he had a gun on him because I could see the black end of it sticking out of his jacket.

"Cody could you come help us lift this box?" Dally asks him and I could just tell he was beyond mad by the sound of his voice.

"You three look plenty strong enough to do it yourselves." He tells them but never takes his gaze away from me. "You sure look pretty as a brunet Stacy."

I just stared at him, a million thoughts racing through my mind.

_DALLY'S POV_

It was taking all I had to not hit the sorry son of bitch right now. Stacy seemed to be in shock or something because her eyes were as wide as sausers and they kept staring directly in the creeps eyes. The guys were supposely hiding in the two rooms for right now but were instructed to call the fuzz once we left again. I hated having to get the cops in on this but Tim says it's the only way. We'll gonna get him caught for attempted murder if I have anything to do with it. Knowing my luck they'd try to arrest me.

"I asked you to. I gave you the free ride out here anyway." Tim told him, his voice steel.

Cody glance back at Tim for the first time, an irritated look on his face. "Fine."

We walked to the truck with Cody behind us, getting ready for the second stage of our plan. Cody opened the passanger side of the truck and was about to grab the box we had planted in there when Tim struck him from behind. Slamming him into the truck a few times he then let me go at him. I lost focus of everything as I started to beat the living shit out of the son of a gun. I had him down soon enough.

"You son of a bitch! You're going to pay for even _thinking_ about hurting my girl!" I yelled at him as I pounded his head down against the gravel.

He threw a punch at my jaw, hitting me dead on and I stumbled off him a little. The little son of a gun could throw a punch all right. Bloody and panting, he glared at me with a glare that was nearly as dangerous as my own.

"Should have known the tramp made friends." He panted out. "Too bad she didn't warn you about what I do to whore's friends."

"You son of a -" I stopped once I saw him hold up his gun.

"It's loaded so if any of you so much as try to fuckin' move then you're all dead! Got it?" He asks as he whipped at his face. Just then Stacy came out of the house, her shocked exspression long gone now as fear was laced over her glossy gray eyes.

"You have an issue with me then deal with it Hinderson! Leave these guys out of it!" She yelled from the porch and I could see the tears laced in her eyes even from a distanced.

Cody chuckled bitterly as a smirk formed on his face. "Oh darlin' I will but first I need to take care of these three. They made the biggest mistake of their lives befriending a tramp like you."

"Shut your trap." Tim and I strangely yelled at him at the same time. It was taken all I had not to go after this guy, gun or not. He wasn't about to hurt my girl. Not now, not ever!

"Let them go Cody!" She yelled at him despritely.

He just laughed at her. "It's you're faught they're going to be dead Richards. You shouldn't have made friends here and hell you shouldn't have left Panama City. You knew I was bound to find you sooner or later."

"Shut up!" She yells at him as the her tears freely roll down her face. "Just shut the hell up!"

He laughs at her before looking back at us.

"You twisted son of a bitch!" I yelled at him as I heard Stacy sobbing. He had no right to live at all and I was about to take care of that.

"I'm just stating the truth." The guy smirked. "Now who do I kill first? You're precious little boyfriend here?" He pointed the gun at me. "The annoying kid with the strange nickname." He pointed it at Curly. "Or the great older brother who lead me to my precious victim?" He then pointed it at Tim. "Such a hard decision."

"Why don't I make it for you?" I asked through narrow eyes. "Why don't you just point it at yourself?"

He smirked. "Ah now I know who I'll kill first." He held the gun up at me but his eyes looked at Stacy and I knew right away what he was going to do. He turned around and aimed at Stacy and I ran as fast as I could and jumped infront.

_STACY'S POV_

"Dally!" I sobbed out as I ran to where he fell. Tim had come up behind the son of a gun while he shot Dally and had him on the ground in no time. Curly had took the gun and I could hear sirens from a distanced.

"S-Stacy." He was holding his side and I prayed it didn't hit an organ or somethin'. Darry and the guys came running out as I held Dally tighter.

"God please don't leave me! I can't lose you Dal! H-Hold on!" I begged him as I felt Two-bit hug me from behind as I sobbed. This couldn't be happening. I was suppose to be the one lying in a puddle of blood. I was suppose to be the one dying by the minute. I was suppose to be the one lying in the gangs arms and freeing them of their troubles! Not Dally. Oh Jesus, not Dally!

I didn't even notice the cops show up or the guys talking to them. All I saw was Dally losing conscience right before my eyes. I didn't even hear them calling for an ambulance.

"S-Stacy." Dally whispers as he struggles from losing conscienceness.

"Yeah?" I choke out as I clinged on to his bloody shirt.

"I-I'll be OK." He somehow was able to give me one of his cocky smirks. "I'm _the _D-Dallas Winston after a-all."

Why must he make me smile when all I want to do is cry? I will never understand this dying fool.

"You jerk." I gave a small smile as I whipped at my tears once more even though I knew they wern't about to subside. Pretty soon the ambulance is here and they load Dally up in it and I slide in too. I wasn't about to leave him just like he wasn't about to leave me last night. I watched as they struck him with all kinds of needles and flinched at that. Boy did that look like it hurt.

They finally got him wheeled in the hospital and it was then that I was forced to stay in the waiting room. I didn't want to leave him even though he was passed out but I knew I had to. Causing a scene would get me no where. Pretty soon the gang arrived with my baby girl that thankfully was OK. I had nearly forgotton about her being there at all. Some mother I am.

"Mommy!" She squealed with a grin on her face as she ran and hugged my neck. Glory did I ever need that right now. I squeezed her tightly until she told me I was about to smoother her.

"Stacy." Angel says before hugging me, pulling me down on a couch. "It's all gonna be OK. That arrogant jerk'll be fine."

I cried into her shoulder. "I hope you're right Angela, I hope you're right. I don't know what I'll do if I lose another person."

"It'll be OK kid." I hear Tim say and feel a strong hand on my shoulder.

"Dally OK?" I hear Tess ask and I look over to see her with Two-bit now.

Two-bit smiled down at her. "He'll be fine."

"You sure?" She asks him with a worried expression in her blue eyes. She then looked over at me to see if I knew the answer. If only I had an answer to give her.

"Yeah." Two-bit tells her and gives me a reasuring smile. "He ain't about to die from a little ole bullet."

I smiled softly as we sat the remainer of the time in silence. Two-bit and Steve told us that the fuzz had Cody down at the station and it wasn't looking good for him niether. That made me smile. I hope he gets all that he has coming for him.

* * *

"Are you all here for Dallas Winston?" A brunet in her late thirties ask wearing a nursing suit.

I wake up to find that we had all fallen asleep. I push off of Angela and nod my head. "Yeah."

"He's out of surgery and we think it went successfully." She gives me a small smile.

I sigh in releaf. "So he's gonna be OK?"

She nodded her head. "Pretty sure honey."

A smile soon forms on my sleepless face. "When can I see him?"

"Now if you want though I ask only two at a time, no need to over work the guy. He's still soar and will probably be tired in a little while." She tells me and I wake up the guys, telling them the great news.

I went in along with Tess and Johnny since we were the closest to him. I figured that Tess couldn't possibly count as whole person since she was so small and anyway she was half awake. We walked into the room they told us to and I couldn't believe that was Dally Winston in that bed. The room was pale white and so was the bed and sheets and Dally. He was dressed in a white hospital gown and his hair seemed to blend in with his face.

"Dally?" I ask uncertain as I saw the three or four IVs sticking out of his arms.

He opened his ice blue eyes to look at us and a small smile formed on his face. It wasn't his arrogant smirk or a lustful one or even the passionate loving one he gave me yesterday. It was one that said thank-God-you're-here-because-I'm-about-ready-to-lose-it. We walked up closer to him and I pulled up two chair by his bed for Johnny and me.

"How you feeling?" I asked as I grabbed his hand with my free arm.

He gave me a small smile. "Been better."

"You've looked better too man." Johnny joked. Johnny hardly ever joked but I guess we all needed something to smile about right now and it worked.

"How's everyone?" Dal asks as he tried to sit up a little but soon hissed out in pain.

"Lay back down." I ordered him as I helped him back down. "No need to get up. The guys are fine; worried about you but fine."

"Well I'm doing alright so you can tell them to stop that." He told us with that arrogant attitude of his. I was so glad to hear it too. At least I know now he'll be OK for sure.

"Dally?" Tess opened her sleepy eyes.

"Yeah kid." He says as she rubs the sleep out of them. It was a little passed three and this little girl really needed to go back to sleep. "What are you doing up girl? Ain't it passed your bed time?"

She smiled at him. "Too bright."

He smirked. "I agree."

"You OK?" She asks him with the same look in her eyes she had earlier.

Dal nodded. "I'm fine kid. Don't you go worryin' now."

She smiled a little and reached out for him. I wasn't so sure if that was a good idea since Dally just had surgery in all but he grabbed her and put her by his good side. The bullet hadn't hit any organ and that was a miracle in itself. Tess got comfortable by Dally and baried her head in his chest, falling back asleep. I couldn't help but wonder why she liked Dally so much. I mean, of all people shouldn't she be a lot closer to Two-bit or the Curtis'? Maybe she has my taste in guys...oh God I hope not!

"You OK baby?" Dally asks me. "You look worse then I do."

"You always know just what to say huh?" I tell him with a grin.

He smirked. "Of course."

"I'm gonna go tell the guys you're fine." Johnny says as he gets up.

"Why don't y'all go on home? I mean, what the point in staying up with me anyway? I'll see y'all in the morning." Dally told him.

Johnny nodded and smiled. "Alright man, hope ya get out of here soon."

Dally grinned. "Me and you both."

"Are you coming home tonight Stacy or staying here?" Johnny asks me.

"I'm staying." I answered before Dally could stop me. "I'm staying rather you like it or not."

He chuckled. "Alright, alright."

"Alright y'all. I'll come by tomorrow." Johnny says before leaving.

Dally looks over at me and rubs his thumb over my cheek. "You really don't look that good."

"I really don't feel that great either." I tell him honestly as I think of my pounding headach and the lack of sleep.

"Come're." He tells me and I crawl in the bed next to Tess, trapping her in the middle of us. I layed my head against his shoulder and I felt his strong arms wrap around me. "Did they get Cody?"

"Two-bit says they did." I tell him as I yawned.

"Go to sleep honey." He tells me as he strokes my hair. "It'll all be alright."

AN: IF I DON'T UPDATE THE NEXT CHAPTER BY TOMORROW THEN IT'LL PROBABLY BE AWHILE. I'M SORRY Y'ALL!! IDK WHAT I'M GONNA DO AFTER THIS...THIS HAS BEEN ONCE OF MY FAV. STORIES TO RIGHT LOL. WELL HOPEFULLY HURRICANE GUSTAV ISN'T SO BAD...SURE I LIKE MISSING SCHOOL IN ALL BUT I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT MY ELETRICITY!!


	22. One Lucky Son Of A Gun!

AN: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER I'M GOING TO WRITE 'CAUSE I GOTTA HELP TIE STUFF DOWN OUTSIDE FOR THE STORM AND I WONT HAVE ANY TIME TO WRITE MORE. WE ARN'T EVACURATING LIKE THEY'RE TELLING US SINCE WE REALLY DONT HAVE ANYWHERE TO GO BUT WE SURVIVED KATRINA SO WE'RE GOING TO WADE THIS ONE OUT TOO!

_DALLY'S POV_

I woke up around dawn that morning. The sun was slowly rising out the half closed curtains and my side was killing me. Tess and Stacy were both fast asleep against me, looking as peaceful as they could. The events of yesterday replayed in my head over and over and I thanked God that it was me with the thirty stitches in my side insted of Stacy. I don't know what I'd do if I hadn't got infront of that bullet fast enough. I'd be the one going to jail for murder and Cody'd be shipped off to the morge.

I looked over at Stacy and saw she was starting to wake up, her eyebrows making a V shape before her beautiful gray eyes opened. She smiled once she saw me and I kissed her forehead, thankful to see that smile of hers.

"Morning." She says softly. "How are you feeling."

"Great." I tell her as I looked in her eyes. I felt better beside her for some reason. I never thought I'd be saying or thinking this but I really do think I'm in love with this girl. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her.

She smiled. "That's great." She looked down at the sleeping toddler and smiled. "I'm so glad she didn't see anything."

"Me too." I say as my eyes rested on the little girl clinging on my shirt. Her brown pigtails were lose and a mess, she was sucking her thumb with her free hand, and her clothes were all wrinkled but she just looked so peaceful; so happy.

"At least I can dye our hair back now." Stacy smiled down at her.

"I kind of like you as a brunet." I tell as I kissed her cheek.

She rolled her eyes but was smiling. "Well I don't. I can't wait to dye my hair back to it's orginal color and change back into my normal clothes."

I chuckled. "Whatever you say babe."

She looked me in the eyes and her smile seem to fade. "You didn't have to do it."

I knew what she was refering to and I knew she'd bring it up. The girl was going to drive me crazy feeling guilty and I wasn't about to let her start. I placed my lips on hers and kissed her gently. "Yes I did."

She looked me in the eyes. "No you didn't."

"If I wouldn't have jumped in the way then he could have killed you and how am I suppose to be with you if you're dead. I'd probably end up killing Cody and myself." I told her honestly. I nearly killed myself before when we almost lost Johnny and I don't think the gang would be able to save me if I lost Stacy.

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "Dally, I just can't help but feel it's my fault you're in here. You'd be fine if -"

I cut her off. "Stacy I am fine. I'll be out in probably a few days if I have my way and don't you dare even think it's you're fault for dragging us into this mess. We gladly decided to help you out 'cause we care about you. Baby, If I would have never met you, I'd probably be in jail right now thinking about how much I hate the world. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me and I wish you'd see that." I hate talking all mushy like this but at least it's just her and not the gang. I'd die if someone over herd me and ruined my rep.

Tears fell from her eyes and she kissed my lips. "I love you."

I gladly kissed her back. "I love you too."

"Me too!" We looked down surprised to see Tess wide awake and smiling at us.

"Baby what are you doing up?" Stacy asks her as she pulled away from our kiss.

"I don't know." She giggled. "You and Dally kiss?"

Stacy cheeks turned a little red and I smirked. "Yeah kid, we did."

"Why?" She asked, just like Stacy had told me she would.

"Because we love each other." Stacy told her.

"Oh." She says as she grins at us. "I love ya."

Stacy grabbed Tess and pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek. "I love ya too babygirl!"

Tess grinned up at her then looked over at me. "I love ya Dally."

I don't know how the kid could but I grinned over at her. It felt so werid yet sorta right if that makes sence hearing her say that. I don't know why either. If someone would have told me two weeks ago this would happen I'd probably laugh at them and tell them to go get laid and quit whatever school they're going to.

"Love ya too kid." I tell her and she bounced into my arms giggling and kissed my cheek.

"This is you made over Stacy." I tell her with a laugh.

Stacy laughed. "Don't I know it."

A knock on the door brung us out of our happy moment. I knew it had to be a nurse or doctor since I knew no one in the gang would be up this early.

"Come in!" Tess yelled and I chuckled.

Some old guy in a doctor suit came in with a clip board in his hands. "Hello Mr.Winston I'm Dr.Kelvin."

"Hey." I greeted half heartedly.

"Hi." Stacy says with a warm smile as she airbowed me on my good side.

"Hiya!" Tess giggled as she leaned aginst me.

The doctor gave us a broad smile. "I've looked at your charts and you seem to be doing OK. I'd say by tomorrow or the next day you'll be out."

"Thank you Jesus." I sighed in relief. I hated being in hospitals. There was never anything to do and the room was never entertaining.

"Well I'll be back to check on you later. I'm sure one of the nurses will be here in a minute to serve you your breakfist." With that said the doctor left.

"Breakfist?" Tess perked up at the mention of food and I couldn't help but chuckle. You'd think this girl was a little boy insted since she's always hungry.

Stacy smiled at her. "Yeah why don't we go get you something to eat from down stairs?"

"No!" She shook her head.

Stacy gave her a questioning look. "Why not?"

"Don't wanna go." She complained.

"I'm going to get me something to eat." Stacy said trying to will her to go too.

"I'll stay here then." She says with a smile.

"Dally don't want you bugging him all day." Stacy told her.

"Yeah huh!" She argued and I chuckled.

"No he don't know come on." Stacy told her as she went to grab her. Tess climbed in my arms and once settled, stuck her toungue out at Stacy.

"He don't mind." She told her.

I laughed. "She can stay I guess. Just don't take all day now."

Stacy sighed and put her hands on her hips, giving Tess a look. "You behave yourself little missy!"

Tess giggled. "OK!"

Stacy reached over and gave me a peck on the lips. "I'll be right back, don't worry."

"Alright girl." I tell her and she walks out the door.

I looked over at Tess. "Wanna see what's on TV?"

"Yay!" She grinned over at me and reached me the remote on the end table. I only had three channels to chose from and decided to watch cartoons over the news or the weather channel. They wouldn't be saying anything about Cody yet so why watch the news and it's not like I'm going anywhere so who cares about the weather.

The door was soon opened again and a blonde nurse came in with a tray of food. "Goodmorning." She greeted with a smile.

"Morning!" Tess grinned at her.

I took the tray she handed me and the food actually looked good unlike last time I was here.

The nurse looked over at Tess and smiled. "Well hey sweetie, what are you watching?"

"Michey Mouse! It's the best!" Tess told her excitedly.

"Don't I know it." The nurse grinned at her. "You watching it with your Daddy?"

I looked over at Tess and decided it'd be easier to just go along with it. "Yeah." I say.

Tess grinned over at me and crawled over to see what kind of food I got. "Can I have a bite?"

I gave her a bite of eggs as the nurse gave us one last smile and left. I guess I could have said "No, it's my girlfriend's kid" but that just didn't sound that great. It made it sound like I was dating some whore and that I was stuck watching this kid. Maybe I'm sicker than the doctors think because I actually sort of like the sound of me being called Tess's Daddy. Yep, I must be deadly sick. Man have I changed in a week and a half.

Stacy soon came back into the room and smiled when Tess told her what happend. Not long from then either, the gang showed up and we hung out a little.

"Fuzz's saying he could get twenty five years to life." Darry says from his spot across the room.

"Good." Stacy says with a grin. "I sure hope so."

"Me too." Angela says as she stood by the bed with Tess in her arms. "I hope this nightmare is over for good!"

"Don't we all." I say as I tightened my grip on Stacy.

"Do you think you could spend two or three hours away from Dally, Stacy?" Angel asks her with a grin.

Stacy laughed. "Depends."

"I say we dye you and Tess's hair back today." Angela says as she pulls out some blonde coloring.

Stacy's eyes lit up and I roll my eyes. "Of course!" She then smiles over at me. "I love you!"

I rolled my eyes again. "Oh yeah."

She laughed and kissed my cheek. "I'll be back, I promise."

Her, Angela, and Tess left the room and I smirked and shook my head. "I will never understand what the big deal was."

Tim just sighed. "It'd be one thing if she had to cut it but dye it?"

"Girls are girls." Two-bit says with a grin. "Just trying to understand them gives me a headach.

"Shoot Two-bit, trying to understand anything gives you a headach." Soda joked and we all cracked up.

I thought back to last week and smiled. Stacy Richards changed my life and everyone elses too it seems. I don't know what I'd do if I never met her but thank God I did. I can remember a few years back when Donny was alive and somehow him having a sister came up in our discusion. He had grinned and said, "Man that girl is something else, rather she knows it or not. She'll make some lucky guy real happy one day. They just better hope I'm not alive or else they won't stand a chance." We all laughed after that. I never imagioned I'd be that lucky son of a gun.

AN: THE END!! THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES WRITING AND I'M NOT SURE BUT I MIGHT MAKE A SEQUAL ABOUT TESS BEING A TEENAGER OR MAYBE A KID AND CODY GETS OUT OF JAIL OR SOMETHING. IDK YET!! PLZ REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! I HAVE TO SAY YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!! THANKS FOR ALL YOU'RE WONDERFUL REVIEWS!!


	23. NOTICE REGARDING SEQUAL!

AUTHOR NOTE!!

I THINK INSTED OF DOING A SEQUAL I'M GONNA DO A PREQUEL. YOU KNOW LIKE DONNY'S STORY BEFORE HE WAS KILLED. I HAD THOUGHT ABOUT DOING IT WHEN I WAS STILL WRITING THIS STORY BUT NEVER PUT TOO MUCH THOUGHT INTO UNTIL SOMEONE MENTIONED IT.

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT IT! I'M NOT SURE WHAT I'LL CALL IT BUT JUST BE LOOKING OUT FOR IT. I MIGHT POST IT AN HOUR OR SO IF THE POWER DONT GO OUT ON ME!


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